"Visual Sources, Human Choices: Building the Cathedral of Ani, c. 1000"
4:45 PM on Tuesday April 9th, 2024
Goldwin Smith Hall G22
Abstract
Ani Cathedral is among the most famous buildings of the medieval Christian East. Standing in what is now a ghost city on the closed international border between the Republics of Turkey and Armenia, it was commissioned by the royal Armenian Bagratid family in the late tenth century. This talk asks: why does the Cathedral look as it does? From what sources did its designer and patrons draw? In so doing, I will journey from Ani to Constantinople, and to Tao-Klarjeti, revisiting the historiography of the building, and highlighting various conceptual questions about architectural teleology, artistic agency, patronage, and aesthetics. I will also consider the Bagratid queen Katramidē (Catherine), builder of Ani Cathedral, and how we might center her in the architectural history of Ani.
Biography
Christina Maranci is Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies jointly appointed in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and the Department of the History of Art and Architecture at Harvard University. She is the author of four books and over 100 articles and essays on medieval Armenian art and architecture, including most recently, with Michael E. Stone, Armenian Manuscripts in the Collection of David and Jemima Jeselsohn (Magnes Press, 2023). Maranci has worked on issues of cultural heritage for over a decade, with a focus on the at-risk Armenian churches and monasteries in what is now Eastern Turkey. She is the author of op.-eds. and essays in the Wall Street Journal, Apollo, The Conversation, and Hyperallergic. She has also been featured on National Public Radio’s Open Source with Christopher Lydon. Finally, she is co-founder of East of Byzantium, a workshop and lecture series designed to support graduate students working on the Christian East.
