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"Byzantium in the context of world culture": a scholarly conference On 12-13 May 2004 a scholarly conference was held dedicated to Alisa Vladimirovna Bank (1906-1984), doctor of historical science, a Byzantine scholar with a worldwide reputation who played an important role in the life of the museum. Alisa Bank studied major historical themes in the art of Byzantium. She worked on the question of Byzantine ties with the Near East and the relations between art in the capital and in the provinces. She wrote critical essays analyzing new theoretical works on Byzantine art. After the Second World War, Dr Bank published albums cataloguing the masterpieces of Byzantine art in the collections of the Hermitage and other collections of the USSR, and also a monograph on applied art in Byzantium. Over the course of many years she was chief of the section on Byzantium and the Near East. Director of the State Hermitage Mikhail Piotrovsky delivered the welcoming speech to conference participants. Among those taking part were representatives of museums in Russia and Western Europe as well as staff of the State Hermitage. Topics related to the study of art treasures of Byzantium were discussed. Research arising from the various State Hermitage expeditions in the past was discussed at the conference. S.B. Adaksina reported on Christian artifacts in the Crimea on the south-eastern slope of Mt Ayu-Dar. M.G. Kramarovsky spoke about a medieval basilica in the urban settlement Solhat. Reports from guest speakers evoked much interest. N.I. Barmina (Yekaterinburg) delivered a talk about the role of catacombs and basilicas in the establishment of Christian artistic culture. L.M. Vorontsova (Sergiev Posad) spoke about Byzantine cameos in the collection of the Troitse-Sergiev Monastery. V.P. Stepanenko (Yekaterinburg) reported on the iconography of a lead medallion from Novgorod and the cult of Dmitry of Solun in Byzantium and Bulgaria in the late 12th – first half of the 13th century. A.V. Zakharova (Moscow) delivered a report on the cycle of miniatures of the Trebizond Evangel and its place in the tradition of illustrated Byzantine Lectionaries. N.V. Pivovarova (St Petersburg) made a survey of the activity of the well-known researcher in Byzantine art A.P. Smirnov. In his report on the significance of the iconography of Byzantine seals, N. Saibt (Vienna) acquainted conference participants with the results of the systematization and classification of Byzantine seals carried out in the Hermitage and in a Commission of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. I.A. Sterligov (Moscow) delivered a paper on unknown Byzantine cameos dating from the 11th to 15th centuries in the Museums of the Moscow Kremlin. I.A. Shalina (St Petersburg) spoke about the composition and symbolic space of Byzantine miniatures showing the “Raising of the Cross”. A report by O.E. Etingof (Moscow) presented comments on attribution of the unknown 13th century Byzantine icon “Our Lady of Odigitria” held in a private collection in Moscow. Among the reports by Hermitage staff delivered at the meeting we take note of the following: V.V. Guruleva, about the future of studies in the area of Byzantine glass exagia; M.A. Dobrovolskoy, on the first female order of St. Catherine established by Peter I; V.N. Zalesskoy, Þn an iconographic analysis of Hermitage monuments from the period of the Paleologues – a round steatite image of St George mounted on his horse slaying the dragon and a turquoise cameo with a half-figure image of St George as a warrior; O.V. Osharinoy, on the iconography of Old Testament Jonah in Coptic art using examples from fresco paintings, mosaics, sculptures and figurines; E.V. Stepanova, on seals portraying the Virgin and St Nicholas from the 10th to 12th centuries; V.S. Shandrovskoy, on legends of Byzantine seals; and A.M. Gordina, on the genealogy of geometric-style acantha, a popular ornament in pre-Mongol Russia. A small research project by A.A. Ierusalimsakaya was devoted to studying a well-known group of Sogdiana silk fabrics, the “zandanechi” of the 8th – 9th centuries which have entered scholarship under the term “silk with pairs of lions in medallions” and studying their attribution. I.G. Peresedov reported on serpentine amulets and their relation to crosses worn on the body and other items of church culture. A paper by M.Ya. Kryzhanovskaya was devoted to the origins of a bright example of Limoges ornamentation of the last quarter of the 12th century, vermicules. A.Ya. Kakovkin delivered a report on a Coptic carved panel depicting a scene from the “Birth of Christ” from the church of Abu Sarga in Cairo and attempted to date the creation of the monument more precisely. N.Z. Kunina spoke in her report about a glass jug with Christian symbols from Eltigen kept in the glass collection of the Hermitage’s Section on the Ancient World. She told about the likely place and time when this artifact was made. A great deal of interest was generated by reports devoted to the study of archival materials: I.L. Kyzlasova reported on the publication of a letter from L.A. Matsulevich to N.P.Sychev dated 1 March 1917; I.P. Medvedev told about letters written by art historians that are found in the V.N. Beneshevich archive; Yu.A. Pyatnitsky directed the attention of participants to the history behind the arrival in the Hermitage of a 12th century Byzantine silver cup; N.V. Semenov presented an attribution for a series of photographs of a group of Coptic stelae from Fiviada made in Cairo in the Egyptian Museum during 1920-1924 by the artist I. Ya. Bilibin. |
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