Armenian Church Textiles Displayed at Tufts University

The students uncovered interesting information in their studies, as each item has its own story. Maranci gave the example of a cope (priest’s robe) or shurchar from Surabaya, which is made of a special Indonesian fabric called prada, gilded with gold leaf, dust or thread. She said, “We had a student working on it who happens to be of Indonesian background who happens to be half-Indonesian, and so had a particular interest in this region, The cope is a product of the Armenian trading colony that was established there in the 18^th century, and into the 19^th century. She was able to track down what we believe is the family of the patron who produced it and whose name is on the clasp of the shurchar. This is the Apkarian or Apcar family, very famous in the context of Indonesia and Surabaya in particular.”

The students approached the liturgical vestments, curtains and objects in different ways, depending on their personal interests and expertise. Maranci pointed out that the largest piece in the exhibition, a liturgical curtain made in Yevdokia (Tokat), was destined, according to its inscription, for the church of Surp Kevork (Saint George) in Mardin. This church, unlike many others, survived but was listed as one of Europa Nostra’s seven most endangered sites in 2013. Maranci said, “My student in the School of Fine Arts, who was taking my seminar, digitally reattached the curtain to its original interior space in a wonderful way.”

A potentially controversial conclusion concerns a cotton ecclesiastical curtain which is resist-dyed, printed and painted in India or Iran in the 18^th or 19^th century. Maranci and her student Atineh Movsesian consulted with people who work on Isfahan and New Julfa, in Iran, and experts on India, but they found nothing obvious indicating it belongs to artistic traditions in those areas. It is an unusual curtain with a huqqa (hookah) smoker alongside traditional images of saints, ecclesiastics, and Adam and Eve, among others. Christ is featured in profile. Most unusual, however, is an inscription which reads in Armenian “Witness Mahemed” and a seal bearing a hand below the inscription to its right.

Maranci cautiously speculates, “I may be wrong, but I think what we might be looking at, based on the iconography and the inscription, is evidence for the longtime tradition that the Prophet Muhammad insured the safety of Armenian Christian sites in and around Jerusalem. We know this tradition from Armenian medieval sources. This might be a very late visualization of that decree, or edict, of the prophet.”

She added that this shows how much work remains to be done on such curtains. This particular object had previously been entirely unstudied. She added, “If I am right, then we have precious unique testimony for something that was known from sources but not in visual terms.” She went on to raise more interesting questions, such as what community made this object, and, if indeed it referred to the famous “Oath of the Prophet,” why was this important for that community to this extent?

The Installation

Maranci and her students provided the texts for the installation of the exhibition. She said, “This was the first time that I was involved the installation of a professional show, where there are discussions about how the walls should look, what color the paint should be, and so on”. There is a lot that goes into it and it was really a conversation. Sometimes I was a part of it and sometimes I wasn’t.” She provided ideas about how the accompanying map should look and what made sense about placement of the liturgical textiles which originally would have been seen in a church, moving about in ceremonies, and not statically hanging from walls or under vitrines. There was an attempt, she said, to give a sense of the pre-modern meaning of the objects by avoiding a sterile, traditionally white gallery space.

Pidatella, Research Curator at the Tufts University Art Galleries, said that the exhibition was two years in the making. The art gallery has its own professional staff, and she represented the latter in supervising the students together with Maranci. She said, “I was the project manager, making sure that everything was going well and on track. It was a group effort, as we all have different skills to contribute.”

Maranci said, “Chiara is a scholar of Italian art, with a doctorate in this field. She helped us navigate through the museums, the students and the gallery, and did a lot of the legwork. It is a huge job. Even with a small exhibition like this, there are a lot of moving pieces. She was incredible in making it all work and also in putting together the guide.”

The Armenian Museum of America was the first institutional partner, and then Pidatella, Deitsch and Maranci visited the Museum of Fine Arts to talked with the curator there about lending a piece. “Unfortunately,” Pidetella said, “covid hit, and it was not easy to work on the loans, but all the partners were really eager to get this exhibition out. It is so relevant, considering the current situation [i.e. in Artsakh].”

“The Armenian Museum of America was so generous,” Pidatella said. “There was a pandemic but it accommodated the students so they could go there and study objects in person. They could look at the technique and make a lot of considerations which they could not have done just by looking at an image in a book. Unless you are really standing in front of the objects, you lose all of these dimensions.”

Pidetella pointed to the two large altar curtains and said, “We did not want to hang them on a wall, because of the stress. We are always mindful about preserving these textiles, so we came up with these slanted displays. We were also looking at the Met’s Armenia! Exhibition a couple of years ago for ideas. We are not the Met [Metropolitan Museum of Art], but we were really committed and invested.” She said that everything, even the lighting, was meticulously calculated, and during the installation process, officials from the two lending institutions were also present to supervise.

While Tufts does not have the facilities to carry out conservation treatment, fortunately, the Museum of Fine Arts decided to do some work on its loan item, which appears to be a fragment of an altar curtain from the late 18^th or early 19^th century. Pidatella said that the conservator during this process discovered some traces of wax and oils, and this says a lot about the original location of this embroidered textile. Susan Lind-Sinanian, textile curator at the Armenian Museum, did some reinforcement of the textiles loaned by this museum before they came to Tufts.

Viewing and Events

Pidetella said, “Our goal is to reach out not only to the Armenian community, but to the larger Tufts community and the Boston communities. It is a one-of-a-kind exhibition.” The exhibition actually ended up taking place a year earlier than originally scheduled due to the effects of the Covid pandemic, and gallery hours are back to normal (Tues.-Sun. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.) at the Koppelman Gallery of the Aidekman Arts Center at Tufts University (40 Talbot Avenue, Medford). For more information, see https://artgalleries.tufts.edu/blog/news/2021/01/30/connecting-threads-survivor-objects/.

There are a number of events connected with the exhibition, including a public reception on September 23, a November 18 workshop with Samantha Fields, a faculty member from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, and a closing tour with Dr. Helen Evans, who recently retired from the Met, on December 5.

A video made at Tufts, which can be viewed either at the entrance to the exhibition or online, features Maranci providing basic background information accompanied by maps and images, and visitors can download an educational guide on their smart phones. There is also a brochure available for visitors which includes descriptions of the displayed items and an essay by Piñon on the block-printed church curtains. The brochure places items in historical context with insights into their relevance.

Galleries director Deitsch concluded, “We haven’t had a general non-student public in a long time, so we are thrilled with this.” Maranci in turn said, “I hope it is reflected in the show that this material connects with so many different worlds. It isn’t just a tiny, obscure culture, but is one that has a lot of power to speak to a lot of different kinds of people. That was made abundantly clear from my experience with the students and their own experience with the objects.”