Kazaryan, Armen Armenian Architecture through the Pages of Robert G. Ousterhout’s Book “Eastern Medieval Architecture: The Building Traditions of Byzantium and Neighboring Lands”

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://dx.doi.org/10.18688/aa199-7-70
Title Armenian Architecture through the Pages of Robert G. Ousterhout’s Book “Eastern Medieval Architecture: The Building Traditions of Byzantium and Neighboring Lands”
Author email armenkazaryan@yahoo.com
About author Kazaryan, Armen — full doctor, director. The Research Institute of Theory and History of Architecture and Town Planning, Moscow; deputy director for research. State Institute for Art Studies, Kozitskiy per., 5, 125009 Moscow, Russian Federation.
In the section Art Critical Surveys and Reviews DOI10.18688/aa199-7-70
Year 2019 Volume 9 Pages 790–795
Type of article RAR Index UDK 72.033 Index BBK 85.11
Abstract

In his new monograph, along with the Byzantine regions, R. Ousterhout pays attention to the architecture of countries that surrounded Byzantium. Among the topics discussed in R. Ousterhout’s multifaceted new book, one is of particular interest to the author of this article, as it is connected to his own research.That is an issue of medieval Armenian architecture in the context of the architecture of the Byzantine world and the entire East. R. Ousterhout points out the role of the Roman heritage in early Christian Armenia. Following the descriptionof the Surb Khach church on Aghtamar Island (915–921), the author focuses on the metropolitancity of Ani and its Cathedral, which are compared by scholars to the churches of the European Romanesque. At the same time the author distinguishes the structure of Armenian and European buildings. Mentioning the zhamatun of Horomos monastery (1038) and the same-type constructions of the 13th century, R. Ousterhout insists on their uniqueness. In the chapter devoted to the master builders the author turns to a schematic working drawing of a stalactite vault executed on the wall of the gavit of the Astvatsnkal monastery. He analyzes photos of the drawing, which was lost for years and re-discovered during our expedition in May 2015. The author was able to give capacious characteristics to a variety of monuments, as well as emphasize those features that turned out to be especially significant to the specialists in Byzantine architecture.
Keywords
Reference Kazaryan, Armen. Armenian Architecture through the Pages of Robert G. Ousterhout’s Book “Eastern Medieval Architecture: The Building Traditions of Byzantium and Neighboring Lands”. Actual Problems of Theory and History of Art: Collection of articles. Vol. 9. Ed: A. V. Zakharova, S. V. Maltseva, E. Iu. Staniukovich-Denisova. — Lomonosov Moscow State University / St. Petersburg: NP-Print, 2019, pp. 790–795. ISSN 2312-2129. http://dx.doi.org/10.18688/aa199-7-70
Publication Article language english
Bibliography
  • Ćurčić S. Architecture in the Balkans. From Diocletian to Süleyman the Magnificent. New Haven; London, Yale University Press Publ., 2010. 913 p.
  • Ghazarian A.; Ousterhout R. A Muqarnas Drawing from Thirteenth-Century Armenia and the Use of Architectural Drawings during the Middle Ages. Muqarnas. An Annual on the Visual Culture of the Islamic World, vol. 18. Leiden, Brill Publ., 2001, pp. 141–154.
  • Kazaryan A. Yu. Tserkovnaia arkhitektura stran Zakavkaz’ia VII veka: formirovanie i razvitie traditsii (Church Architecture of the 7th Century in Transcaucasian Countries: Formation and Development of the Tradition), vol. 2. Moscow, Locus Standi Publ., 2012. 640 p. (in Russian).
  • Kazaryan A. The Architecture of Horomos Monastery. Vardanyan E. (ed.). Horomos Monastery: Art and History. Paris, ACHCByz Publ., 2015, pp. 55–205.
  • Kazaryan A. Yu. Review: Christina Maranci, Vigilant Powers: Three Churches of Early Medieval Armenia (Studies in the Visual Cultures of the Middle Ages, vol. 8). Turnhout: Brepols Publishers n. v., 2015. 281 p., il. Questions of the History of World Architecture, 2016, no. 6, pp. 283–287 (in Russian).
  • Krautheimer R. Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture. Harmondsworth, Penguin books Publ., 1965. 390 p.
  • Krautheimer R.; Ćurčić S. Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture. New Haven; London, Yale University Press Publ., 1986. 553 p.
  • Maranci C. Medieval Armenian Architecture: Constructions of Race and Nation. Leuven, Peeters Publ., 2001. 282 p.
  • Maranci C. Vigilant Powers: Three Churches of Early Medieval Armenia (Studies in the Visual Cultures of the Middle Ages, vol. 8). Turnhout, Brepols Publishers n. v. Publ., 2015. 281 p.
  • Ousterhout R. G. Eastern Medieval Architecture: The Building Traditions of Byzantium and Neighboring Lands. Oxford University Press Publ., 2019. 783 p.
  • Strzygowski J. Die Baukunst der Armenier und Europa, vols. 1–2. Wien, Anton Schroll & Co. Publ., 1918. 888 p. (in German).