Professor and Students Study Manuscript at the MET

Dr. Ani Shahinian, Assistant Professor of the Grace & Paul Shahinian Lectureship in Armenian Christian Art & Culture, accompanied her students from St. Nersess and St Vladimir’s Seminaries to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The MET) on November 1 for a special, private study-day at the Armenian collection held there.

As part of her newly designed course on “Christian Martyrdom in Image and Text,” she examined and lectured on a special manuscript – the Four Gospels Manuscript – copied at the Monastery of Saint George, province of Mokk’, Southwest of Lake Van, in the year 1434.

Dr. Shahinian, drawing on her doctoral research in the Lake Van region highlighted the significance of Catholicos Zak‘aria II of Aght‘amar who had invested in the renovations and reconstructions of the churches in and around the Lake, including St. George, which made it possible for this manuscript to be copied and now appear to us centuries later. She further elaborated on the distinct features and characteristics of the Van region manuscript illuminations, focusing on the function of the colophon in Armenian manuscripts.

Also present were Andrea Myers Achi, PhD, current Mary and Michael Jaharis Associate Curator of Byzantine and guests from the MET.