Venezia ArtiVenezia e-ISSN 2385-2720 ISSN 0394-4298 28 Vol. 27 Edizioni 2018 Dicembre 2018 Ca’Foscari [online] ISSN 2385-2720 Venezia Arti [print] ISSN 0394-4298 Rivista diretta da Carmelo Alberti Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Digital Publishing Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia Dorsoduro 3246 30123 Venezia URL http://edizionicafoscari.unive.it/it/edizioni/riviste/venezia-arti/ Venezia Arti Rivista annuale Direzione scientifica Carmelo Alberti (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Michela Agazzi (Co-Direttore) (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Comitato scientifico Michela Agazzi (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Hans Aurenhammer (Universität Frankfurt am Main, Deutschland) Xavier Barral i Altet (Université de Renne 2, France) Gabriella Belli (Fondazione Musei Civici Veneziani, Venezia, Italia) Joe Farrell (Strathclyde University, Glasgow, UK) Fernando Mazzocca (Università degi Studi di Milano, Italia) Maria Grazia Messina (Università degli Studi di Firenze) José Sasportes (Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal) Luca Zoppelli (Universität Freiburg, Deutschland) Comitato di lettura Maria Ida Biggi (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Fabrizio Borin (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) David Bry- ant (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Roberta Dreon (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Giovanni Maria Fara (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Sergio Marinelli (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Maria Chiara Piva (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Paolo Puppa (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Stefano Riccioni (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Nico Stringa (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Giordana Trovabene (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Journal Manager Stefano Riccioni (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Direttore responsabile Carmelo Alberti (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Redazione | Head office Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia Dipartimento di Filosofia e Beni Culturali Dorsoduro 3484/D - 30123 Venezia, Italia [email protected] Editore Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Digital Publishing | Dorsoduro 3859/A, 30123 Venezia, Italia | [email protected] Stampa Logo srl, Via Marco Polo 8, 35010, Borgoricco (PD) © 2018 Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia © 2018 Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Digital Publishing per la presente edizione Quest’opera è distribuita con Licenza Creative Commons 4.0 Attribution alone Internazionale This work is licensed under a Creative Commons 4.0 Attribution alone International Certificazione scientifica delle Opere pubblicate da Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Digital Publishing: tutti i articoli pubblicati hanno ottenuto il parere favorevole da parte di valutatori esperti della materia, attraverso un processo di revisione anonima sotto la responsabilità del Comitato scien- tifico della rivista. 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Venezia Arti [online] ISSN 2385-2720 Vol. 27 – Dicembre 2018 [print] ISSN 0394-4298 Sommario DISCOVERING THE ART OF MEDIEVAL CAUCASUS (1801-1945) edited by Ivan Foletti and Stefano Riccioni Inventing, Transforming and Discovering Krikor (Grigor) Balakian’s Ruins of Ani Southern Caucasus A Surprising Source for Armenian Architecture Some Introductory Observations Christina Maranci 67 Ivan Foletti, Stefano Riccioni 7 “The Heritage of Ancestors” From Russia with Love Early Studies on Armenian Manuscripts The First Russian Studies and Miniature Painting on the Art of Southern Caucasus Gohar Grigoryan Savary 81 Ivan Foletti, Pavel Rakitin 15 Illuminating an Armenian Set of Manuscripts For Beauty, Nation and God A forgotten treasure in the Layard Collection The Creation of the Georgian National Treasure Cecilia Riva 103 Alžběta Filipová 35 Armenian Art and Culture from the Pages La description archéologique of the Historia Imperii Mediterranei et éthnographique de la Grande Arménie Stefano Riccioni 119 par les Pères mékhitaristes de Venise entre hellénophile et arménophilie Una fortunata metafora di Cesare Brandi: Benedetta Contin 53 le «chiese di cristallo» degli Armeni Marco Ruffilli 131 URL http://edizionicafoscari.unive.it/it/edizioni/riviste/venezia-arti/2018/27/ DOI 10.30687/VA/2385-2720/2018/04 Discovering the Art of Medieval Caucasus (1801-1945) edited by Ivan Foletti and Stefano Riccioni Venezia Arti e-ISSN 2385-2720 Vol. 27 – Dicembre 2018 ISSN 0394-4298 Inventing, Transforming and Discovering Southern Caucasus Some Introductory Observations Ivan Foletti (Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic; Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Stefano Riccioni (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) The roots of Caucasus or the whole of north- the historical capital of medieval Armenia, Ani ern Georgia with its surrounding territories, (fig. 1), where many monasteries and isolated known under different names, are immensely churches can be found (Kevorkian 2001, cf. in important for historians and archaeologists. this volume Maranci’s essay with the associat- This importance was perpetuated in many ed bibliography). In a breath-taking landscape, monuments that have unfortunately been de- the monuments of medieval Armenia take form, prived of the necessary attention to this day in dialogue with the landscape, creating very and have not been studied accurately, and for picturesque conditions (Maranci 2009). A visitor the enlightened audience it is as though they to Ani, however, will be surprised at the monu- never existed. (Ioseliani 1844)1 ments’ dilapidated state. Those who are familiar with the city’s history – once the capital of the With these words, in 1844, Platon Ioseliani in- Armenian Kingdom – will be again surprised troduced an essay – one of his earliest written at an information panel describing a city that in Russian – dedicated to the churches of Tbilisi reached its peak in the years following the con- and its surroundings. In the reflections of Iose- quest of the Seljuk Turks (Sim 2004), and which liani, for centuries historical Georgia (the king- is utterly devoid of any mention of the Armenian dom of Kartli) were constantly in danger because presence. The monuments in ruin seem to have of its powerful neighbours, and for years its his- been compromised mostly by time. This situation torical and archaeological studies had very little changes dramatically, however, for monuments space for development. The premise implied by located just a few kilometres away, like Horo- Ioseliani, who was Georgian but a subject of the mos, Khtzkonk, or even Mren (Vardanyan 2015; tzar, was that the order guaranteed by Georgia’s Sin 1999; Maranci 2013). These marvellous ar- annexation to Russia would finally offer the re- chitectural works are literally collapsing under gion the ‘peace’ necessary for a real history of our eyes, vandalised with graffiti and damage the country to be written. hard to attribute to time alone. And if that were More than 170 years have passed since Iose- not enough, some tomb robbers were caught in liani wrote these lines and the world has changed Horomos. Today, no authority seems to deal with in many ways. The history of studies dedicated the safeguarding of these monuments, which is a to the artistic history of the South Caucasus, key to the history not only of the Caucasus, but however, has not always followed the linear path of all Mediterranean culture. Ioseliani hoped for. Furthermore, to this today, Looking at photographs from the early twen- in some parts of the region, the conditions for tieth century makes the situation even more the study of history (of art and in general) are alarming: the images show that Horomos and problematic. Just over a year ago, Foletti visited Khtzkonk were still active monasteries, and in the Kars region with his students, the site of an excellent state of conservation, in 1900 (figs. 1 This article was carried out as part of the project The Heritage of Nikodim P. Kondakov in the Experiences of André Grabar and the Seminarium Kondakovianum (GA18-20666S). DOI 10.30687/VA/2385-2720/2018/27/000 Submission 2018-11-30 | © 2018 | cb Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License 7 e-ISSN 2385-2720 Venezia Arti, 27, 2018, 7-14 ISSN 0394-4298 Figure 1. The Cathedral of Ani. 2017. © Center for Early Medieval Studies Brno 2-3). In the case of the Khtzkonk monastery, of international heritage, the Turkish state has from the 1920s to the present, four buildings started to take care of the region’s heritage, this have literally disappeared, while one bears trac- does not seem to be happening for monuments es of destruction that cannot have been caused outside the attention of international authorities by time. All the evidence seems to confirm that (UNESCO 2015). these buildings were intentionally destroyed This situation is obviously reflected in the with modern, probably military means (Fontana history of studies: it was made difficult for Ar- 2018). The desecrated tombs, with scattered menian scholars to visit monuments in Turkey, human bones, only serve to confirm this tragic while the Turkish viewpoint was influenced by situation. the country’s political situation, where speak-