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{{Short description|Armenian art historian (1896–1989)}}
{{Infobox scientist
{{Infobox scientist
|name = Sirarpie Der Nersessian
| name = Sirarpie Der Nersessian
|image = Sirarpie Der Nersessian.jpg
| image = Sirarpie Der Nersessian.jpg
|image_size = 200px
| image_size = 200px
|birth_date = {{birth date|1896|9|5}}
| birth_date = {{birth date|1896|9|5}}
|birth_place = [[Constantinople]], [[Ottoman Empire]]
| birth_place = [[Constantinople]], [[Ottoman Empire]]
|death_date = {{death date and age|1989|7|5|1896|9|5}}
| death_date = {{death date and age|1989|7|5|1896|9|5}}
|death_place = [[Paris]], France
| death_place = [[Paris]], France
|field = [[Armenian studies]], [[Byzantine studies]]
| field = [[Armenian studies]], [[Byzantine studies]]
|work_institutions = [[Dumbarton Oaks]], [[Wellesley College]], [[Harvard University]]
| work_institutions = [[Dumbarton Oaks]]<br>[[Wellesley College]]<br>[[Harvard University]]
|alma_mater = [[Sorbonne University]]
| alma_mater = [[Sorbonne University]]
|doctoral_advisor = [[Gabriel Millet]]
| doctoral_advisor = [[Gabriel Millet]]
|doctoral_students =
| doctoral_students =
⚫
| prizes = Order of Saint Gregory the Illuminator (1960, First Class) <br> [[Anania Shirakatsi]] Award (1981, Armenian Academy of Sciences)
|influences = André Grabar, [[Charles Diehl]], [[Henri Focillon]], Gabriel Millet
|influenced =
| religion =
⚫
| footnotes =
⚫
|prizes = Order of Saint Gregory the Illuminator (1960, First Class) <br> [[Anania Shirakatsi]] Award (1981, Armenian Academy of Sciences)
|religion =
⚫
|footnotes =
}}
}}
'''Sirarpie Der Nersessian''' (5 September 1896{{spaced ndash}}5 July 1989) was an [[Armenians|Armenian]] [[art historian]], who specialized in [[Armenian studies|Armenian]] and [[Byzantine studies]]. Der Nersessian was a renowned academic and a pioneer in [[Armenian art]] history. She taught at several institutions in the [[United States]], including [[Wellesley College]] in Massachusetts and as [[Henri Focillon]] Professor of Art and Archaeology at [[Harvard University]].<ref>{{cite book|authorlink=Dickran Kouymjian|last=Kouymjian|first=Dickran|contribution=Sirarpie Der Nersessian (1896-1989): Pioneer of Armenian Art History|title=Medievalists and the Academy|editor=Jane Chance|location=Madison|publisher=University of Wisconsin Press|year=2005|p=483|isbn=0-299-20750-1}}</ref><ref name=DumbartonOaks>{{cite journal|author=Allen, Jelisaveta, Nina G. Garsoïan, Ihor Ševčenko, Robert W. Thomson|title=Sirarpie Der Nersessian: 1896-1989|journal=Dumbarton Oaks Papers|volume=43|pages=ix–xi|year=1989|jstor=1291601}}</ref> She was a [[senior fellow]] at [[Dumbarton Oaks]], 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]] (1975), the [[Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres]] (1978) and the [[Armenian Academy of Sciences]] (1966).<ref name=DumbartonOaks/>
'''Sirarpie Der Nersessian''' (5 September 1896{{spaced ndash}}5 July 1989) was an [[Armenians|Armenian]] [[art historian]], who specialized in [[Armenian studies|Armenian]] and [[Byzantine studies]]. Der Nersessian was a renowned academic and a pioneer in [[Armenian art]] history. She taught at several institutions in the [[United States]], including [[Wellesley College]] in Massachusetts and as [[Henri Focillon]] Professor of Art and Archaeology at [[Harvard University]].<ref>{{cite book|authorlink=Dickran Kouymjian|last=Kouymjian|first=Dickran|contribution=Sirarpie Der Nersessian (1896-1989): Pioneer of Armenian Art History|title=Medievalists and the Academy|editor=Jane Chance|location=Madison|publisher=University of Wisconsin Press|year=2005|page=483}}</ref><ref name=DumbartonOaks>{{cite journal|author=Allen, Jelisaveta, Nina G. Garsoïan, Ihor Ševčenko, Robert W. Thomson|title=Sirarpie Der Nersessian: 1896-1989|journal=Dumbarton Oaks Papers|volume=43|pages=ix–xi|year=1989|jstor=1291601}}</ref> She was a [[senior fellow]] at [[Dumbarton Oaks]], 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]] (1975), the [[Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres]] (1978), and the [[Armenian Academy of Sciences]] (1966).<ref name=DumbartonOaks/> By the 1970s, she was recognized as the leading scholar in [[Armenian studies]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Mirak |first1=Robert |title=Sirarpie Der Nersessian, The Armenians (New York: Praeger, 1970) |journal=[[The Armenian Review]] |date=Spring 1971 |volume=XXIV |issue=1–93 |pages=78–80 |url=https://tert.nla.am/archive/NLA%20AMSAGIR/Armenian-review/1971(1-93).pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240910091141/https://tert.nla.am/archive/NLA%20AMSAGIR/Armenian-review/1971(1-93).pdf |archive-date=2024-09-10 |quote=How fortunate, then, that Professor Sirarpie Der Nersessian, the foremost Armenologist of our time, undertook this work on The Armenians}}</ref>


==Biography==
==Biography==


===Education===
===Education===
Der Nersessian was born the youngest of three children in [[Constantinople]] in 1896. She came from a well-to-do family and her maternal uncle happened to be the [[Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople]], [[Malachia Ormanian]].<ref name=DumbartonOaks/> Her parents died while she was still young: her mother Akabi, when she was nine, and her father Mihran, when she was eighteen.<ref name="Dictionary">{{cite web|contribution=Sirarpie Der Nersessian|url=http://arthistorians.info/dernersessians|publisher=[[Dictionary of Art Historians]]}}</ref> 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]], Der Nersessian and her sister Arax (by then orphans) were forced to leave for Europe, where they took up residence in [[Geneva]]. Der Nersessian studied at the [[University of Geneva]] for several years until settling in [[Paris, France]] in 1919.<ref name="SAE">{{cite book|language=hy|authorlink=Levon Chookaszian|last=Chookaszian|first=Levon|contribution=Տեր-Ներսեսյան, Սիրարփի Միհրան [Ter Nersesyan, Sirarpi Mihrani]|title=Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia|volume=11|location=Yerevan|publisher=Armenian Encyclopedia|year=1985|p=683|title-link=Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia}}</ref>
Der Nersessian was born the youngest of three children in [[Constantinople]] in 1896. She came from a well-to-do family (her maternal uncle was then-[[Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople]] [[Malachia Ormanian]]).<ref name=DumbartonOaks/> Her parents died while she was still young: her mother Akabi, when she was nine, and her father Mihran, when she was eighteen.<ref name="Dictionary">{{cite encyclopedia |editor=Sorensen, Lee |entry=Der Nersessian, Sirarpie |entry-url=https://arthistorians.info/dernersessians |encyclopedia=[[Dictionary of Art Historians]] |date=2018-02-21}}</ref> She attended the Esayan Academy and the English High School for Girls in Constantinople, gaining fluency in Armenian, English and French at an early age. In 1915, during the height of the [[Armenian genocide]], Der Nersessian and her sister Arax (by then orphans) were forced to leave for Europe, settling in [[Geneva]]. Der Nersessian studied at the [[University of Geneva]] for several years until moving to [[Paris, France]] in 1919.<ref name="SAE">{{cite book|language=hy|authorlink=Levon Chookaszian|last=Chookaszian|first=Levon|contribution=Ter Nersesyan, Sirarpi Mihrani|title=Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia|volume=11|location=Yerevan|publisher=Armenian Encyclopedia|year=1985|page=683|title-link=Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia}}</ref>


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 [[Byzantine studies|Byzantinologist]]s [[Charles Diehl]] and [[Gabriel Millet]] and art historian [[Henri Focillon]].<ref name="SAE"/> In 1922, she became Millet's assistant, and with his help, published one of her first articles in 1929.<ref name=DumbartonOaks/> 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,<ref name="Dictionary"/> were well-received (earning a ''Mention très honorable''), and both of them were awarded with prizes by the [[Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres]] and ''Revue des Études Grecques'' when they were published in 1937.
Der Nersessian was admitted to the [[Sorbonne University|Sorbonne]], where she studied history in the École des Hautes Études de l'université de Paris. She worked under the [[Byzantine studies|Byzantine scholar]]s [[Charles Diehl]] and [[Gabriel Millet]] and art historian [[Henri Focillon]].<ref name="SAE"/> In 1922, she became Millet's assistant, and with his help, published one of her first articles in 1929.<ref name=DumbartonOaks/> 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,<ref name="Dictionary"/> were well-received (earning a ''Mention très honorable''), and both were awarded with prizes by the [[Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres]] and ''Revue des Études Grecques'' when they were published in 1937.


===Professor and pioneer===
===Professor and pioneer===
In 1930, Der Nersessian moved to the [[United States]] at the suggestion of her three mentors, Byzantinists [[Charles Rufus Morey]], Albert M. Friend Jr., and Walter Cook, becoming a part-time lecturer at [[Wellesley College]] in [[Massachusetts]]. 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.<ref name="SAE"/> 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]] 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.<ref>Kouymjian. "Sirarpie Der Nersessian", pp. 482-493.</ref> In 1947, she received the Achievement Award from the [[American Association of University Women]].
In 1930, Der Nersessian moved to the [[United States]] at the suggestion of her three mentors, Byzantinists [[Charles Rufus Morey]], Albert M. Friend Jr., and Walter Cook, becoming a part-time lecturer at [[Wellesley College]] in [[Massachusetts]]. She taught art history at Wellesley, quickly being promoted to full professor and later becoming the department chair of the art history program and director of the Farnsworth Museum (now the Davis Museum).<ref name="SAE"/> Der Nersessian was the first woman to teach Byzantine art at a women's college, the first woman to be decorated with the medal of Saint Gregory the Illuminator by Catholicos [[Vazgen I]] 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.<ref>Kouymjian. "Sirarpie Der Nersessian", pp. 482-493.</ref> In 1947, she received the Achievement Award from the [[American Association of University Women]].


Der Nersessian remained at Dumbarton Oaks until 1978, when she retired to France and lived with her sister in Paris.<ref name=DumbartonOaks/> Upon retirement, she had her entire library shipped to the [[Matenadaran]] in [[Yerevan]], so as to better help Armenian scholars in their studies. Shortly after her death in 1989, an endowment fund for prospective art history students in Armenia, Fonds Sirarpie Der Neressian at the Institut de Recherches sur les Miniatures Arméno-Byzantines, was created in her honor.<ref name="Dictionary"/>
Der Nersessian remained at Dumbarton Oaks until 1978, when she retired to France and lived with her sister in Paris.<ref name=DumbartonOaks/> Upon retirement, she had her entire library shipped to the [[Matenadaran]] in [[Yerevan]], so as to better help Armenian scholars in their studies. Shortly after her death in 1989, an endowment fund for prospective art history students in Armenia, the Fonds Sirarpie Der Neressian at the Institut de Recherches sur les Miniatures Arméno-Byzantines, was created in her honor.<ref name="Dictionary"/>


==Select bibliography==
==Bibliography==
Der Nersessian's scholarly output chiefly focused on art history, and more specifically on the study of [[church architecture]], [[illuminated manuscripts]], [[Miniature (illuminated manuscript)|miniatures]] and [[sculpture]].
⚫
Der Nersessian's work primarily concerned Armenian art history, including the study of [[church architecture]], [[illuminated manuscripts]], [[Miniature (illuminated manuscript)|miniatures]] and [[sculpture]]. Below is a partial list of books and articles that she authored.<ref>For a more comprehensive list, see: Dumbarton Oaks Papers. "Sirarpie Der Nersessian." ''Dumbarton Oaks''. Vol. 21, 1967, pp. 1-5.</ref> Her 1945 book, ''Armenia and the Byzantine Empire'', was praised by art historians [[David Talbot Rice]],<ref>{{cite journal|title=Armenia and the Byzantine Empire by Sirapie der Nercessian Review by: David Talbot Rice|journal=[[The English Historical Review]]|volume=61|issue=240|date=May 1946|pp=271–272|doi=10.1093/ehr/LXI.CCLX.271-b |publisher=Oxford University Press|quote=Miss Nercessian's factual treatment is again welcome in a field where narrow partisanship has often tended to obscure the issues. Her book is likely to prove useful to all students of near eastern history, as well as to archaeologists and art historians.}}</ref> [[Jurgis Baltrušaitis (son)|Jurgis Baltrušaitis]],<ref>{{cite journal|title=Armenia and the Byzantine Empire. A Brief Study in Armenian Art and Civilization by Sirarpie der Nersessian; Henri Grégoire Review by: Jurgis Baltrušaitis|journal=The Art Bulletin|volume=28|issue=2|pages=124–125|date=June 1946|publisher=[[College Art Association]]|quote=In bringing together elements of such diversity, and in placing them clearly in their true relations, Sirarpie Der Nersessian has accomplished a tour de force. If I have allowed myself to add a few comments, it is not by way of correction or criticism, but only as reflections suggested by a richly significant perusal, and one that has taught us much.|doi=10.2307/3047064|title-link=Jurgis Baltrušaitis (son)|jstor=3047064|last1=Baltrušaitis|first1=Jurgis}}</ref> and [[Alexander Vasiliev (historian)|Alexander Vasiliev]].<ref name="Vasiliev">{{cite journal|title=Armenia and the Byzantine Empire. A Brief Study of Armenian Art and Civilization by Sirapie Der Nersessian Review by: A. Vasiliev|journal=[[Speculum (journal)|Speculum]]|volume=20|issue=4|date=October 1945|pp=491–494|publisher=Medieval Academy of America|quote=…its subject is very little known, and is here dealt with by the best authority of our day on Armenian history, art, and civilization… …I can say from the point of view of Byzantine studies that I consider Miss Der Nersessian's book the best study which has yet appeared in which, in a concise and most reliable form, the reader for the first time has a picture of political, religious, cultural, and artistic interrelations between Armenia and the Byzantine Empire.|title-link=Alexander Vasiliev (historian)}}</ref> Vasiliev wrote in his review of the book that she is "the best authority of our day on Armenian history, art, and civilization."<ref name="Vasiliev"/>


⚫
Her 1945 book ''Armenia and the Byzantine Empire'' was praised by art historians [[David Talbot Rice]],<ref>{{cite journal|title=Armenia and the Byzantine Empire by Sirapie der Nercessian Review by: David Talbot Rice|journal=[[The English Historical Review]]|volume=61|issue=240|date=May 1946|pages=271–272|doi=10.1093/ehr/LXI.CCLX.271-b |quote=Miss Nercessian's factual treatment is again welcome in a field where narrow partisanship has often tended to obscure the issues. Her book is likely to prove useful to all students of near eastern history, as well as to archaeologists and art historians.}}</ref> [[Jurgis Baltrušaitis (son)|Jurgis Baltrušaitis]],<ref>{{cite journal|title=Armenia and the Byzantine Empire. A Brief Study in Armenian Art and Civilization by Sirarpie der Nersessian; Henri Grégoire Review by: Jurgis Baltrušaitis|journal=The Art Bulletin|volume=28|issue=2|pages=124–125|date=June 1946|quote=In bringing together elements of such diversity, and in placing them clearly in their true relations, Sirarpie Der Nersessian has accomplished a tour de force.|doi=10.2307/3047064|title-link=Jurgis Baltrušaitis (son)|jstor=3047064|last1=Baltrušaitis|first1=Jurgis}}</ref> and [[Alexander Vasiliev (historian)|Alexander Vasiliev]].<ref name="Vasiliev">{{cite journal|title=Armenia and the Byzantine Empire. A Brief Study of Armenian Art and Civilization by Sirapie Der Nersessian Review by: A. Vasiliev|journal=[[Speculum (journal)|Speculum]]|volume=20|issue=4|date=October 1945|pages=491–494|quote=…its subject is very little known, and is here dealt with by the best authority of our day on Armenian history, art, and civilization… …I can say from the point of view of Byzantine studies that I consider Miss Der Nersessian's book the best study which has yet appeared in which, in a concise and most reliable form, the reader for the first time has a picture of political, religious, cultural, and artistic interrelations between Armenia and the Byzantine Empire.|title-link=Alexander Vasiliev (historian)|doi=10.2307/2856749|jstor=2856749}}</ref> Vasiliev wrote in his review of the book that she was "the best authority of our day on Armenian history, art, and civilization."<ref name="Vasiliev"/> [[Vrej Nersessian]] described her ''Armenian art'' (1979, French: 1977) as the "most comprehensive and most beautiful book" on the subject.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Nersessian |first1=Vrej |author1-link=Vrej Nersessian |title=Armenia (World Bibliographical Series, Vol. 163) |date=1993 |publisher=[[Clio Press]] |location=Oxford |page=176}}</ref>

Below is a partial list of books and articles that she authored.<ref>For a more comprehensive list, see: Dumbarton Oaks Papers. "Sirarpie Der Nersessian." ''Dumbarton Oaks'' 21 (1967): pp. 1-5.</ref>
===Books===
===Books===
*''Armenia and the Byzantine Empire''. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1945.
*''Armenia and the Byzantine Empire''. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1945.
*''Aght'amar: Church of the Holy Cross''. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1964. {{OCLC|962530139}}
*''Aght'amar: Church of the Holy Cross''. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1964.
*''Armenian Manuscripts in the Walters Art Gallery''. Baltimore: The Trustees, 1973. {{OCLC|248915153}}
*''Armenian Manuscripts in the Walters Art Gallery''. Baltimore: The Trustees, 1973.
*''Armenian miniatures from Isfahan''. Brussels: Les Editeurs d’Art Associés, 1986. {{OCLC|17649399}}
*''Armenian Miniatures from Isfahan''. Brussels: Les Editeurs d’Art Associés, 1986.
*''The Armenians''. New York: Praeger, 1969.
*''The Armenians''. New York: Praeger, 1969.
*{{fr icon}} ''L'Art arménien''. Paris: Art européen. Publications filmées d'art et d'histoire, 1965.
*{{in lang|fr}} ''L'Art arménien''. Paris: Art européen. Publications filmées d'art et d'histoire, 1965.
*{{fr icon}} ''L'illustration du roman de Barlaam et Joasaph''. Paris: de Boccard, 1937.
*{{in lang|fr}} ''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. {{OCLC|470085368}}
*''Miniature Painting in the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia from the Twelfth to the Fourteenth Century''. Washington D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Studies, 1993.


===Articles===
===Articles and chapters===
*"The Armenian Chronicle of the Constable Smpad or of the 'Royal Historian.'" Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Vol. 13, 1959, pp.&nbsp;141–168.
*"The Armenian Chronicle of the Constable Smpad or of the 'Royal Historian.'" ''Dumbarton Oaks Papers'' 13 (1959): pp.&nbsp;141–168.
*"An Armenian Gospel of the Fifteenth Century." ''The Boston Public Library Quarterly''. 1950, pp.&nbsp;3–20.
*"An Armenian Gospel of the Fifteenth Century," ''The Boston Public Library Quarterly'' 2 (1950): pp.&nbsp;3–20.
*{{hy icon}} "A General View of the Manuscripts of San Lazarro." ''[[Bazmavep]]''. Venice, 1947, pp.&nbsp;269–272.
*{{in lang|hy}} "A General View of the Manuscripts of San Lazarro." ''[[Bazmavep]]'' (1947): pp.&nbsp;269–272.
*"Pagan and Christian Art in Egypt. An exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum." ''The Art Bulletin''. Vol. 33, 1941, pp.&nbsp;165–167.
*"Pagan and Christian Art in Egypt. An exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum." ''The Art Bulletin'' 33 (1941): pp.&nbsp;165–167.
*"Two Miracles of the Virgin in the Poems of Gautier de Coincy." Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Vol. 41, 1987, pp.&nbsp;157–163.
*"Two Miracles of the Virgin in the Poems of Gautier de Coincy," ''Dumbarton Oaks Papers'' 41 (1987): pp.&nbsp;157–163.
*"The Kingdom of Cilician Armenia", ''A History of the Crusades'', edited by Kenneth M. Setton, 1969.
*"The Kingdom of Cilician Armenia," in Kenneth M. Setton, ed., ''A History of the Crusades'', vol. 2: ''The Later Crusades, 1189-1311''. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press 1969.


==Notes==
== References ==
{{Reflist|30em}}
{{Reflist|2}}

==External links==
* [https://www.doaks.org/research/library-archives/dumbarton-oaks-archives/collections/historical-papers/sirarpie-der-nersessian-papers-and-photographs Sirarpie Der Nersessian Papers and Photographs], Dumbarton Oaks.


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Latest revision as of 20:02, 29 October 2024

Sirarpie Der Nersessian
Born(1896-09-05)September 5, 1896
Constantinople, Ottoman Empire
DiedJuly 5, 1989(1989-07-05) (aged 92)
Paris, France
Alma materSorbonne University
AwardsOrder of Saint Gregory the Illuminator (1960, First Class)
Anania Shirakatsi Award (1981, Armenian Academy of Sciences)
Scientific career
FieldsArmenian studies, Byzantine studies
InstitutionsDumbarton Oaks
Wellesley College
Harvard University
Doctoral advisorGabriel Millet

Sirarpie Der Nersessian (5 September 1896 – 5 July 1989) was an Armenian art historian, who specialized in Armenian and Byzantine studies. Der Nersessian was a renowned academic and a pioneer in Armenian art history. She taught at several institutions in the United States, including Wellesley College in Massachusetts and as Henri Focillon Professor of Art and Archaeology at Harvard University.[1][2] She was a senior fellow at Dumbarton Oaks, 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 (1975), the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres (1978), and the Armenian Academy of Sciences (1966).[2] By the 1970s, she was recognized as the leading scholar in Armenian studies.[3]

Biography

[edit]

Education

[edit]

Der Nersessian was born the youngest of three children in Constantinople in 1896. She came from a well-to-do family (her maternal uncle was then-Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople Malachia Ormanian).[2] Her parents died while she was still young: her mother Akabi, when she was nine, and her father Mihran, when she was eighteen.[4] She attended the Esayan Academy and the English High School for Girls in Constantinople, gaining fluency in Armenian, English and French at an early age. In 1915, during the height of the Armenian genocide, Der Nersessian and her sister Arax (by then orphans) were forced to leave for Europe, settling in Geneva. Der Nersessian studied at the University of Geneva for several years until moving to Paris, France in 1919.[5]

Der Nersessian was admitted to the Sorbonne, where she studied history in the École des Hautes Études de l'université de Paris. She worked under the Byzantine scholars Charles Diehl and Gabriel Millet and art historian Henri Focillon.[5] In 1922, she became Millet's assistant, and with his help, published one of her first articles in 1929.[2] 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,[4] were well-received (earning a Mention très honorable), and both were awarded with prizes by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres and Revue des Études Grecques when they were published in 1937.

Professor and pioneer

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In 1930, Der Nersessian moved to the United States at the suggestion of her three mentors, Byzantinists Charles Rufus Morey, Albert M. Friend Jr., and Walter Cook, becoming a part-time lecturer at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. She taught art history at Wellesley, quickly being promoted to full professor and later becoming the department chair of the art history program and director of the Farnsworth Museum (now the Davis Museum).[5] Der Nersessian was the first woman to teach Byzantine art at a women's college, the first woman to be decorated with the medal of Saint Gregory the Illuminator by Catholicos Vazgen I 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.[6] In 1947, she received the Achievement Award from the American Association of University Women.

Der Nersessian remained at Dumbarton Oaks until 1978, when she retired to France and lived with her sister in Paris.[2] Upon retirement, she had her entire library shipped to the Matenadaran in Yerevan, so as to better help Armenian scholars in their studies. Shortly after her death in 1989, an endowment fund for prospective art history students in Armenia, the Fonds Sirarpie Der Neressian at the Institut de Recherches sur les Miniatures Arméno-Byzantines, was created in her honor.[4]

Select bibliography

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Der Nersessian's scholarly output chiefly focused on art history, and more specifically on the study of church architecture, illuminated manuscripts, miniatures and sculpture.

Her 1945 book Armenia and the Byzantine Empire was praised by art historians David Talbot Rice,[7] Jurgis Baltrušaitis,[8] and Alexander Vasiliev.[9] Vasiliev wrote in his review of the book that she was "the best authority of our day on Armenian history, art, and civilization."[9] Vrej Nersessian described her Armenian art (1979, French: 1977) as the "most comprehensive and most beautiful book" on the subject.[10]

Below is a partial list of books and articles that she authored.[11]

Books

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  • Armenia and the Byzantine Empire. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1945.
  • Aght'amar: Church of the Holy Cross. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1964.
  • 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.
  • (in French) L'Art arménien. Paris: Art européen. Publications filmées d'art et d'histoire, 1965.
  • (in French) 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 and chapters

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  • "The Armenian Chronicle of the Constable Smpad or of the 'Royal Historian.'" Dumbarton Oaks Papers 13 (1959): pp. 141–168.
  • "An Armenian Gospel of the Fifteenth Century," The Boston Public Library Quarterly 2 (1950): pp. 3–20.
  • (in Armenian) "A General View of the Manuscripts of San Lazarro." Bazmavep (1947): pp. 269–272.
  • "Pagan and Christian Art in Egypt. An exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum." The Art Bulletin 33 (1941): pp. 165–167.
  • "Two Miracles of the Virgin in the Poems of Gautier de Coincy," Dumbarton Oaks Papers 41 (1987): pp. 157–163.
  • "The Kingdom of Cilician Armenia," in Kenneth M. Setton, ed., A History of the Crusades, vol. 2: The Later Crusades, 1189-1311. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press 1969.

References

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  1. ^ Kouymjian, Dickran (2005). "Sirarpie Der Nersessian (1896-1989): Pioneer of Armenian Art History". In Jane Chance (ed.). Medievalists and the Academy. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. p. 483.
  2. ^ a b c d e Allen, Jelisaveta, Nina G. Garsoïan, Ihor Ševčenko, Robert W. Thomson (1989). "Sirarpie Der Nersessian: 1896-1989". Dumbarton Oaks Papers. 43: ix–xi. JSTOR 1291601.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ Mirak, Robert (Spring 1971). "Sirarpie Der Nersessian, The Armenians (New York: Praeger, 1970)" (PDF). The Armenian Review. XXIV (1–93): 78–80. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2024-09-10. How fortunate, then, that Professor Sirarpie Der Nersessian, the foremost Armenologist of our time, undertook this work on The Armenians
  4. ^ a b c Sorensen, Lee, ed. (2018-02-21). "Der Nersessian, Sirarpie". Dictionary of Art Historians.
  5. ^ a b c Chookaszian, Levon (1985). "Ter Nersesyan, Sirarpi Mihrani". Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia (in Armenian). Vol. 11. Yerevan: Armenian Encyclopedia. p. 683.
  6. ^ Kouymjian. "Sirarpie Der Nersessian", pp. 482-493.
  7. ^ "Armenia and the Byzantine Empire by Sirapie der Nercessian Review by: David Talbot Rice". The English Historical Review. 61 (240): 271–272. May 1946. doi:10.1093/ehr/LXI.CCLX.271-b. Miss Nercessian's factual treatment is again welcome in a field where narrow partisanship has often tended to obscure the issues. Her book is likely to prove useful to all students of near eastern history, as well as to archaeologists and art historians.
  8. ^ Baltrušaitis, Jurgis (June 1946). "Armenia and the Byzantine Empire. A Brief Study in Armenian Art and Civilization by Sirarpie der Nersessian; Henri Grégoire Review by: Jurgis Baltrušaitis". The Art Bulletin. 28 (2): 124–125. doi:10.2307/3047064. JSTOR 3047064. In bringing together elements of such diversity, and in placing them clearly in their true relations, Sirarpie Der Nersessian has accomplished a tour de force.
  9. ^ a b "Armenia and the Byzantine Empire. A Brief Study of Armenian Art and Civilization by Sirapie Der Nersessian Review by: A. Vasiliev". Speculum. 20 (4): 491–494. October 1945. doi:10.2307/2856749. JSTOR 2856749. …its subject is very little known, and is here dealt with by the best authority of our day on Armenian history, art, and civilization… …I can say from the point of view of Byzantine studies that I consider Miss Der Nersessian's book the best study which has yet appeared in which, in a concise and most reliable form, the reader for the first time has a picture of political, religious, cultural, and artistic interrelations between Armenia and the Byzantine Empire.
  10. ^ Nersessian, Vrej (1993). Armenia (World Bibliographical Series, Vol. 163). Oxford: Clio Press. p. 176.
  11. ^ For a more comprehensive list, see: Dumbarton Oaks Papers. "Sirarpie Der Nersessian." Dumbarton Oaks 21 (1967): pp. 1-5.
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