The Öngüt Connection: Christianity among the Turks of Medieval Eurasia

Updated on April 13, 2023 by bsanacom

East of Byzantium is pleased to announce the final lecture in its 2022–2023 lecture series.

Tuesday, April 25, 2023 | 12:00 PM EDT | Zoom
The Öngüt Connection: Christianity among the Turks of Medieval Eurasia
Joel Walker | University of Washington, Seattle Early and influential allies of Chinggis Khan, the Öngüt Turks of Inner Mongolia played a pivotal role in the rise of the Mongol Empire (1206–1368). Their adoption of “Nestorian” Christianity represents the culmination of a broad stream of Turkic Christian tradition in medieval Eurasia. The careers of the ascetic Marqos of Koshang, who became the East-Syrian patriarch Yahballaha III (1281–1317), and the ruler Giwargis, the Mongol-appointed “Prince of Gaotang” (d. 1298 or 1299), help reveal the distinctive contours of the Öngüt Christian tradition.

Joel Walker is the Lawrence J. Roseman Associate Professor of History at the University of Washington, Seattle. Trained as a historian of Late Antiquity, his publications include: The Legend of Mar Qardagh: Narrative and Christian Heroism in Late Antique Iraq (2006); “From Nisibis to Xi’an: The Church of the East in Late Antique Eurasia” (2012); and “Luminous Markers: Pearls and Royal Authority in Late Antique Iran and Eurasia” (2018). Current projects include Witness to the Mongols: A Global History Sourcebook (co-authored with Stefan Kamola) and a history of cattle in the Ancient World.

Advance registration required. Register: https://eastofbyzantium.org/upcoming-events/

Contact Brandie Ratliff (mjcbac@hchc.edu), Director, Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture, with any questions.

An East of Byzantium lecture. EAST OF BYZANTIUM is a partnership between the Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies at Harvard University and the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture that explores the cultures of the eastern frontier of the Byzantine empire in the late antique and medieval periods.

The historiographical topos in Byzantium (NHRF Lecture)

Updated on April 13, 2023 by bsanacom

The Byzantine Studies Lectures of the Institute of Historical Research (National Hellenic Research Foundation) continue on April 25 with a hybrid lecture on:

The historiographical topos in Byzantium: some thoughts on place, space, and meaning

Ingela Nilsson, Uppsala University

18:00 EET, National Hellenic Research Foundation, 48, V. Constantinou Av. 11635, Athens.

To join via Zoom please follow the link: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_19bjxJ6FSMGJ2uzIazFikQ

Lecture: The English monks on Greek and Latin and on the Church Union debates

Updated on March 21, 2023 by bsanacom

The Byzantine Studies Lectures of the Institute of Historical Research (National Hellenic Research Foundation) continue on March 28 with a hybrid lecture on:

The English monks on Greek and Latin and on the Church Union debates (First half of the thirteenth century)
by Eleonora Kountoura-Galake, National Hellenic Research Foundation.

18:00 EET, National Hellenic Research Foundation, 48, V. Constantinou Av. 11635, Athens.

To join via Zoom please follow the link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88500052364?pwd=ZURtOEE4RzZDRW5hVjJSSE1SMjF3UT09

The series program for the spring semester of 2022-23 can also be viewed online: http://www.eie.gr/nhrf/institutes/ihr/index-en_IHR_news.html

Piece by Piece: Mosaic Artifacts in Byzantium and the Ancient Americas

Updated on March 20, 2023 by bsanacom

Piece by Piece: Mosaic Artifacts in Byzantium and the Ancient Americas

WHERE: Dumbarton Oaks | Oak Room

WHEN: May 18 – 19, 2023

This workshop and museum colloquium will bring together art historians, archaeologists, anthropologists, curators, conservators, and scientists to consider the production, use, and meaning of mosaic artifacts in Byzantium and the ancient Americas.

Across premodern cultures, the mosaic artform enjoyed tremendous prestige. In the medieval Mediterranean, no other pictorial medium could rival mosaic’s opulence and visual splendor or claim to entail the same level of technical expertise. Durable and infinitely reparable, mosaics intimated a sense of both history and timelessness. Similarly, in the ancient Americas, the mosaic medium embodied status, wealth, and authority. A range of socially and ritually significant objects, from weapons and jewelry to figurines, were adorned with exquisitely crafted mosaic inlays, featuring such rich materials as turquoise, lapis lazuli, serpentine, and mother-of-pearl. Tellingly, both Byzantine micromosaic icons and ancient American portable mosaic objects would captivate the imaginations of discerning antiquarians and collectors in early modern Europe. To these later audiences, mosaic epitomized cultures that were, from the European vantage point, geographically and temporally “far away.”

The Dumbarton Oaks Museum has unique holdings of artworks in the mosaic medium, including two Byzantine micromosaic icons (BZ.1947.24 and BZ.1954.2), a Wari mosaic mirror (PC.B.432) and figurine (PC.B.437), and a Maya mosaic mask (PC.B.557). The collection therefore presents a rare resource for reexamining mosaic artifacts from a cross-cultural perspective and exploring new ways of thinking more expansively about the mosaic medium and its histories, both local and global. In addition to this cross-cultural frame, this workshop and colloquium will serve as an opportunity to devote specific attention to Byzantine micromosaic icons, exceptionally rare (only thirty-six are known to survive today), and yet understudied, outstanding works of medieval art. The occasion of this workshop and colloquium offers us a far-reaching opportunity to return to the proverbial square one and reassess everything we think we know about Byzantine micromosaic icons: when they were created, where, how, by whom, for whom, and why.

Event details

The two-day event will consist of three parts: a colloquium, with a series of papers, and two study sessions. The first study session, led by conservators, will present new technical research on the micromosaic icons of the Forty Martyrs of Sebasteia and St. John Chrysostom at Dumbarton Oaks, placing the Byzantine objects in dialogue with the Wari and Maya mosaic artifacts, also in the DO collection. The second session, which will be dedicated to Byzantine micromosaic icons specifically, will involve a structured group discussion about the current state of scholarship and imperatives for future research. The colloquium will be open to the public. The two study sessions will be open to colloquium participants and a small number of selected scholarly guests.

Organizers

Ivan Drpić, Associate Professor of History of Art, University of Pennsylvania
John Lansdowne, Post-Doctoral Fellow and Assistant to the Director for Academic Programs, I Tatti, The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies
Elizabeth Dospěl Williams, Curator, Byzantine Collection, Dumbarton Oaks

For more information, see the event’s web page:

https://www.doaks.org/events/other-events/piece-by-piece

Lecture: Chôra and the Creation of Sacred Space in Byzantine Architecture

Updated on March 14, 2023 by bsanacom

The Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture is pleased to announce the final lecture in its 2022–2023 lecture series.

Thursday, March 30, 2023 | 12:00 PM EDT | Zoom
Chôra and the Creation of Sacred Space in Byzantine Architecture
Jelena Bogdanović, Vanderbilt UniversityCan we talk about Byzantine architecture beyond buildings? What is at stake?
This presentation engages with the scholarly opportunities for theoretical considerations of sacred architecture in light of Byzantine intellectual and creative practices. Primarily focusing on principles of architectural design, sacred space is highlighted here not as an abstract category nor as a specific sacred place or location but rather as a combination of the two. As such, sacred space points to a historical and evocative locale and associated events; yet it remains inseparable from its essential qualities. By revisiting the architectural design of Byzantine churches, this talk will demonstrate the meaningful relations between created sacred space and the faithful, between physical objects in space, and the significance of non-material aspects of built structures in communicating the vitality of architectural form as a kind of participatory icon of space. Especially important is the philosophically and architecturally suggestive concept of chôra (χώρα) and its cognate hypodochē (υποδοχή), originally introduced by Plato in his instrumental text Timaeus. This presentation will analyze the relevance of chôra and hypodochē for understanding the modes of creation of sacred space and religious architecture in the late antique and Byzantine Mediterranean.

Jelena Bogdanović (Ph.D. Princeton University) is an Associate Professor of History of Art and Architecture and Classical and Mediterranean Studies at Vanderbilt University. She studies cross-cultural and religious themes in the architecture of the Balkans and Mediterranean.

Advance registration required at https://maryjahariscenter.org/events/chora-and-the-creation-of-sacred-space

Contact Brandie Ratliff (mjcbac@hchc.edu), Director, Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture with any questions.

East of Byzantium Lecture: Divine King or Sacrilegious Upstart?

Posted on March 10, 2023 by bsanacom

East of Byzantium is pleased to announce the next lecture in its 2022–2023 lecture series.

Tuesday, March 21, 2023 | 12:00 PM EDT | Zoom
Divine King or Sacrilegious Upstart? The Portrait of Emperor Yǝkunno Amlak in Gännätä Maryam
Jacopo Gnisci | University College London

In the third quarter of the thirteenth century Yǝkunno Amlak led a rebellion against the Zagwes – a line of Christian rulers who had been in control of most of the Empire of Ethiopia since at least the first half of the twelfth century. He initiated a line that would rule the country until the twentieth century: the Solomonic dynasty. Apart from these general facts, we know relatively little about the life of the first emperor of this dynasty. In this paper I hope to further our understanding of Yǝkunno Amlak’s reign and visual strategies by focusing on his only known contemporary portrait in the church of Gännätä Maryam. By analysing this image in its wider setting, I aim to shed some light on its socio-political background and reflect on the reactions it might have triggered.

Jacopo Gnisci is a Lecturer in the Art and Visual Cultures of the Global South at University College London and a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Africa, Oceania, and the America at the British Museum. He is the co-Principal Investigator of the projects Demarginalizing medieval Africa: Images, texts, and identity in early Solomonic Ethiopia (1270-1527) (AHRC Grant Ref. no. AH/V002910/1; DFG Projektnummer 448410109) and Material Migrations: Mamluk Metalwork across Afro-Eurasia (Gerda Henkel Stiftung).

Advance registration required. Register: https://eastofbyzantium.org/upcoming-events/

Contact Brandie Ratliff (mjcbac@hchc.edu), Director, Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture with any questions.

An East of Byzantium lecture. EAST OF BYZANTIUM is a partnership between the Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies at Harvard University and the Mary Jaharis Center that explores the cultures of the eastern frontier of the Byzantine empire in the late antique and medieval periods.

Sebastē Program Registration Accommodations A Symposium in Honor of Ioli Kalavrezou

Posted on February 23, 2023 by bsanacom

SAVE THE DATE!

Σεβαστή: A SYMPOSIUM IN HONOR OF IOLI KALAVREZOU

History of Art and Architecture Building on the campus of Harvard University

485 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02138

Saturday, April 29, 2023, 9.30 am-6pm

Confirmed speakers include:

Frances St. Amant, PhD Candidate, Harvard University

Diliana Angelova, Associate Professor, University of California, Berkeley

Merih Danalı, Assistant Professor, Wake Forest University

Ivan Drpić, Associate Professor, University of Pennsylvania

Konstantina Karterouli, Research Associate, Dumbarton Oaks

Janet T. Marquardt, Distinguished Professor Emerita, Eastern Illinois University

Bissera V. Pentcheva, Professor, Stanford University

Katherine M. Taronas, Byzantine Studies Fellow, Dumbarton Oaks

Courtney Tomaselli, Instructor, Loyola University, Chicago

Nicolette S. Trahoulia, Professor, Deree-The American University of Greece

Alicia Walker, Professor, Bryn Mawr College

This event is free and open to the public; attendees are asked to register in advance.

For the complete symposium program and registration, go to: SebasteSymposium.org

Sponsored by The Department of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University, The Harvard University Standing Committee on Medieval Studies, and The Byzantine Studies Program, Dumbarton Oaks

Questions? Please contact Ivan Drpić (drpic@sas.upenn.edu) or Alicia Walker (awalker01@brynmawr.edu)

Byzantine Studies Lectures (NHRF), February 2023

Updated on February 21, 2023 by bsanacom

The Byzantine Studies Lectures of the Institute of Historical Research (National Hellenic Research Foundation) continue on February 28 with a hybrid lecture on:

Boundaries and borderlines in multi-religious environments: the case of Byzantium by Youval Rotman, University of Tel Aviv

18:00 EET, National Hellenic Research Foundation, 48, V. Constantinou Av. 11635, Athens.

To join via Zoom please follow the link: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_YHKM3vNmQ0q0dkcmuI4WZg

You can view the series program for the spring semester of 2022-23 online: http://www.eie.gr/nhrf/institutes/ihr/index-en_IHR_news.html

Lecture: Dialogue in Homilies and Hymns on the Annunciation

Updated on February 20, 2023 by bsanacom

The Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture is pleased to announce the next lecture in its 2022–2023 lecture series.

Wednesday, March 1, 2023 | 12:00 PM EST | Zoom
Dialogue in Homilies and Hymns on the Annunciation: The Dynamics of a Divine Encounter
Mary Cunningham, University of NottinghamThe story of the Annunciation of the archangel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary is first recounted in the Gospel of Luke 1: 26-38. The event was formally adopted as a major feast in the Eastern Church, celebrated on 25 March (nine months before Christmas) in 560, during the reign of the Emperor Justinian. Homilies and hymns on the Annunciation were composed long before this date, however, not always in association with the feast. These texts build on Luke’s narrative, describing Mary as the ‘Second Eve’ who overturned the disobedience of her first ancestor by consenting to God’s will and conceiving Christ, the Son of God. They celebrate the event as the inauguration of the new dispensation, which will bring salvation to humanity and the rest of creation. Further elaboration, which appears especially in homilies – but later also in hymns – on the Annunciation, can be seen in the invention of dialogues between Gabriel and Mary or Mary and Joseph. These serve not only to convey the doctrine of the incarnation to audiences, but also to illustrate the Virgin’s human condition. She expresses shock and doubt at her first encounter with the archangel, but gradually accepts his message of salvation. This lecture will examine variations in liturgical writers’ handling of the issues of free will, gender, and Marian devotion in Byzantine homilies and hymns on the Annunciation. It will be illustrated by images of the scene, including in icons, manuscript illustrations, and monumental art.Mary B. Cunningham is Honorary Associate Professor of Historical Theology at the University of Nottingham. Her latest monograph is The Virgin Mary in Byzantium, c. 400-1000. Hymns, Homilies, and Hagiography (Cambridge University Press, 2021).

Advance registration required at https://maryjahariscenter.org/events/dialogue-in-homilies-and-hymns-on-the-annunciation

Contact Brandie Ratliff (mjcbac@hchc.edu), Director, Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture with any questions.

Second Annual Mathews Byzantine Lecture

Updated on February 20, 2023 by bsanacom

The Medieval Institute presents the Second Annual Mathews Byzantine Lecture

Olivier Delouis, Ph.D.

Research Fellow at the Maison française d’Oxford (CNRS)

Visiting Fellow in Byzantine Studies at Campion Hall

“Writing Byzantine History with the Archives of Mount Athos: The Odds and Perils of Uneven Sources”

Thursday, February 23, 2023

5:00–6:00 P.M. (U.S. Eastern)

Reception follows in person in the Medieval Institute Reading Room (715 Hesburgh Library) and streamed live on our YouTube channel

About the Talk

Byzantine documents preserved in the archives of the monasteries of Mount Athos in Greece are by far the most extensive and valuable body of documentation from the Byzantine Empire. They represent about half of the entire collection of archival documents that have survived, span more than five centuries (10th–15th c.), and cover large areas of Macedonia and Thrace as well as some North-Aegean islands. Moreover, these documents are often our only source of information about rural and urban society, agrarian economy, demography, provincial administration, among other subjects. Their prevalence should be a matter of concern since monasteries–although common in Byzantium–are very specific by nature. This presentation will assess the current research on the documentation of Mount Athos and ask the following question: is monastic history– economic, social, administrative–representative of the Empire? How can we guess what is missing, based on these monastic archives?

About the Speaker

Olivier Delouis is a researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and a former member of the French School of Archaeology of Athens, Greece. In Oxford, he is currently a Research Fellow at the Maison française d’Oxford (CNRS) and a Visiting Fellow in Byzantine Studies at Campion Hall. From 2013 to 2021, he directed the Revue des études byzantines (Peeters Publishers). His current research includes the edition of the Great Catecheseis of Theodore the Stoudite, the edition of two volumes of Mount Athos archives collection (monastery of Chilandar), and the publication of the scientific correspondence of Athanasios Papadopoulos-Kerameus (1856–1912). Among his recent publications are three collective volumes on Monastic Mobility (Rome, 2019), Monastic Daily Life, 4th–10th c. (Cairo-Athens, 2019), and Athos Monastic Archives and their Reception (Paris, 2019), as well as various articles on Theodore the Stoudite.

About the Series

The Mathews Lectures bring a distinguished scholar of Byzantine studies to campus each year to deliver a talk, supported by the Rev. Constantine Mathews Endowment for Excellence in Byzantine Christianity in the Medieval Institute. Vasilios Mathews and Nikiforos Mathews established the endowment to honor their father, the Reverend Constantine Mathews, who earned a Masters Degree in Liturgical Studies at Notre Dame in 1977. During a half-century of dedicated ministry, Father Mathews served as presiding parish priest at St. Andrew’s Greek Orthodox Church in South Bend, followed by the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation in Stamford, Connecticut.

For more information, visit medieval.nd.edu

715 Hesburgh Library | Notre Dame, IN 46556 US