Armenia! at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

In our third from a series of videos featuring the curators of Armenia! Dr. C. Griffith Mann considers how this unique exhibition differs from shows in the past that have featured Armenia within the broader context of Byzantine art. With this exhibition, The Met celebrates some of the great achievements of Armenian visual arts and puts a spotlight on the contributions that Armenian artists, thinkers and writers have made to broader world culture.

On view at the The Metropolitan Museum of Art in the fall and winter of 2018, Armenia! was the Museum’s first large-scale exhibition dedicated to the artistic and cultural achievements of the Armenian people in the Middle Ages. In a series of videos for AGBU WebTalks, the curators of the show discussed the significance of this unique exhibition and the works represented in it.

Originally published November 2018.

About the speaker

C. Griffith Mann

Dr. C. Griffith Mann has served as The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Michel David-Weill Curator in Charge of the Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters since September 2013. In this role, he is responsible for the medieval collections and curatorial staff in the Met’s main building, and for directing the staff and operations of the Met Cloisters, the branch of the Metropolitan Museum dedicated to the art and architecture of medieval Europe. Dr. Mann received his B.A. in art history and history from Williams College, and his Ph.D. in medieval art from The Johns Hopkins University. A specialist in the arts of late medieval Italy, he has published on civic patronage, painting, and devotion in Tuscany. As a curator, Dr. Mann has worked on exhibitions on the medieval cult of relics, the art and archaeology of medieval Novgorod, and French manuscript illumination of the 13th century. Dr. Mann formerly served as the Chief Curator and Deputy Director at The Cleveland Museum of Art, where he helped to lead the museum’s reinstallation, acquisition, and exhibition programs, and as medieval curator and Director of the Curatorial Division at The Walters Art Museum, where he worked on exhibitions and the permanent collection.

C. Griffith Mann