Sirarpie Der-Nersessian
Encyclopedia
Sirarpie Der Nersessian was an Armenian
Armenians
Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....
art historian who specialized in Armenian
Armenian studies
Armenian studies, or Armenology is a field of humanities covering Armenian history, language, religion and culture.- Early scholars :*Lord Byron *Ghevond Alishan *Mikayel Chamchian...
and Byzantine studies
Byzantine studies
Byzantine studies is an interdisciplinary branch of the humanities that addresses the history, culture, costumes, religion, art, such as literature and music, science, economy, and politics of the Byzantine Empire. The discipline's founder in Germany is considered to be the philologist Hieronymus...
. Der Nersessian was a renowned academic and a pioneer in Armenian art history. She taught at several institutions in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, including Wellesley College in Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
and as Henri Focillon Professor of Art and Archaeology at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
. She was a senior fellow at Dumbarton Oaks
Dumbarton Oaks
Dumbarton Oaks is the conventional name for the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, situated on a historic property in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. The institution is administered by the Trustees for Harvard University. Its founders, Robert Woods Bliss and his wife...
, its deputy director from 1954–55 and 1961–62 and a member of its Board of Scholars. Der Nersessian was also a member of several international institutions such as the British Academy
British Academy
The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national body for the humanities and the social sciences. Its purpose is to inspire, recognise and support excellence in the humanities and social sciences, throughout the UK and internationally, and to champion their role and value.It receives an annual...
(1975), the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
The Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres is a French learned society devoted to the humanities, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the Institut de France.-History:...
(1978) and the Armenian Academy of Sciences
Armenian Academy of Sciences
The Armenian Academy of Sciences is the primary body that conducts research in and coordinates activities in the fields of science and social sciences in the Republic of Armenia. It was founded on November 29, 1943...
(1966).
Education
Der Nersessian was born the youngest of three children in ConstantinopleConstantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
in 1896. She came from a well-to-do family and her maternal uncle happened to be the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople
Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople
The Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople also known as Armenian Patriarch of Istanbul is today head of The Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople , one of the smallest Patriarchates of the Oriental Orthodox Church but one that has exerted a very significant political role and today still exercises...
, Maghakia Ormanian
Malachia Ormanian
Malachia Ormanian, was Archbishop and Patriarch of Constantinople of the Armenian Orthodox Church.-Life:Boghos Ormanian , originated from an Armenian-Catholic family. He joined the Armenian Uniate Catholic Church, then studied in Rome, serving as an Armenian teacher to The Sacred Congregation de...
. Her parents died while she was still young: her mother Akabi, when she was nine, and her father Mihran, when she was eighteen. She graduated from Yesayan Parochial School and the English High School in Constantinople, gaining fluency in Armenian, English and French at an early age. In 1915, during the height of the Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide
The Armenian Genocide—also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Crime—refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...
, Der Nersessian and her sister Arax (by then orphans) were forced to leave for Europe, where they took up residence in Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
. Der Nersessian studied at the University of Geneva
University of Geneva
The University of Geneva is a public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland.It was founded in 1559 by John Calvin, as a theological seminary and law school. It remained focused on theology until the 17th century, when it became a center for Enlightenment scholarship. In 1873, it...
for several years until settling in Paris, France in 1919.
Der Nersessian was admitted to Sorbonne University, studying history at the École des Hautes Études de l'université de Paris. She studied under the notable Byzantinologist
Byzantine studies
Byzantine studies is an interdisciplinary branch of the humanities that addresses the history, culture, costumes, religion, art, such as literature and music, science, economy, and politics of the Byzantine Empire. The discipline's founder in Germany is considered to be the philologist Hieronymus...
s Charles Diehl
Charles Diehl
Charles Diehl was a French historian who was a native of Strasbourg. He was a leading authority on Byzantine art and history....
and Gabriel Millet and art historian Henri Focillon
Henri Focillon
Henri Focillon was a French art historian.Director of the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyon. Professor of Art History at the University of Lyon, at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Lyon, at the Sorbonne, at the Collège de France and then in the United States, where he went into exile and taught at Yale...
. In 1922, she became Millet's assistant, and with his help, published one of her first articles in 1929. The two theses (graduates students then had to submit two theses) that she presented for her doctorat d'etat, "L'illustration du roman de Barlaam et Joasaph" and a paper on Armenian illuminated manuscripts during the late medieval period, were well-received (earning a Mention très honorable), and both of them were awarded with prizes by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
The Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres is a French learned society devoted to the humanities, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the Institut de France.-History:...
and Revue des Études Grecques when they were published in 1937.
Professor and pioneer
In 1930, Der Nersessian moved to the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
at the suggestion of her three mentors, Byzantinists Charles Rufus Morey
Charles Rufus Morey
Charles Rufus Morey was an American art historian and professor and chairman of the Department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University from 1924 to 1945, best known for his expertise in medieval art and his Index of Christian Art...
, Albert M. Friend Jr., and Walter Cook, becoming a part-time lecturer at Wellesley College in Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
. She taught art history at Wellesley, quickly gaining a full professorship and later becoming the chairwoman of the Department of Art History and Director of Farnsworth Museum. Der Nersessian was the first woman to teach Byzantine art at a woman’s college, the first woman to be decorated with the medal of Saint Gregory the Illuminator by His Holiness Catholicos Vazgen I
Vazgen I
His Holiness Vazgen I was the Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church between 1955 and 1994, in one of the longest reigns of the Armenian Catholicoi. A native of Romania, he began his career as a philosopher, before becoming a Doctor of Theology and a member of the local Armenian clergy...
in 1960, the first woman invited to lecture at the Collège de France in Paris, the only woman in her time to gain full professorship at Dumbarton Oaks, and the second woman to be honored with a gold medal from the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1970.
Der Nersessian remained at Dumbarton Oaks until 1978, when she retired to France and lived with her sister in Paris. Upon retirement, she had her entire library shipped to the Matenadaran
Matenadaran
The Mesrop Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts , commonly referred to as the Matenadaran , is an ancient manuscript repository located in Yerevan, Armenia...
in Yerevan
Yerevan
Yerevan is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously-inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and industrial center of the country...
, so as to better help Armenian scholars in their studies. Shortly after her death in 1989, an endowment fund for prospective art historian students in Armenia, Fonds Sirarpie Der Neressian at the Institut de Recherches sur les Miniatures Arméno-Byzantines, was created in her honor.
Select bibliography
Der Nersessian's work primarily concerned Armenian art history, including the study of church architectureChurch architecture
Church architecture refers to the architecture of buildings of Christian churches. It has evolved over the two thousand years of the Christian religion, partly by innovation and partly by imitating other architectural styles as well as responding to changing beliefs, practices and local traditions...
, illuminated manuscripts, miniatures
Miniature (illuminated manuscript)
The word miniature, derived from the Latin minium, red lead, is a picture in an ancient or medieval illuminated manuscript; the simple decoration of the early codices having been miniated or delineated with that pigment...
and sculpture
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
. Below is a partial list of books and articles that she authored.
Books
- Aght'amar: Church of the Holy Cross. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1945.
- Armenia and the Byzantine Empire: A Brief Study of Armenian Art and Civilization. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1945.
- Armenian Manuscripts in the Walters Art Gallery. Baltimore: The Trustees, 1973.
- Armenian miniatures from Isfahan. Brussels: Les Editeurs d’Art Associés, 1986.
- The Armenians. New York: Praeger, 1969. L'Art arménien. Paris: Art européen. Publications filmées d'art et d'histoire, 1965. L'illustration du roman de Barlaam et Joasaph. Paris: de Boccard, 1937.
- Miniature Painting in the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia from the Twelfth to the Fourteenth Century. Washington D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Studies, 1993.
Articles
- "The Armenian Chronicle of the Constable Smpad or of the 'Royal Historian.'" Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Vol. 13, 1959, pp. 141–168.
- "An Armenian Gospel of the Fifteenth Century." The Boston Public Library Quarterly. 1950, pp. 3–20. "A General View of the Manuscripts of San Lazarro." BazmavepBazmavepBazmavep is an Armenological magazine an Armenian one of the oldest continuous publication in Europe, at the Monastery of the Mekhitarist Fathers, Venice, Italy....
. Venice, 1947, pp. 269–272. - "Pagan and Christian Art in Egypt. An exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum." The Art Bulletin. Vol. 33, 1941, pp. 165–167.
- "Two Miracles of the Virgin in the Poems of Gautier de Coincy." Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Vol. 41, 1987, pp. 157–163.
- "The Kingdom of Cilician Armenia", A History of the Crusades, edited by Kenneth M. Setton, 1969.