Manuscript Bequeathed by Rouben Mamoulian
The Library of Congress recently inherited the papers of the renowned Armenian-American stage and film director Rouben Mamoulian (1897–1987), known for stage and screen classics such as George and Ira Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, the Greta Garbo film Queen Christina, and the Rogers and Hammerstein musicals Oklahoma and Carousel. The bequest included this eighteenth-century Armenian manuscript that is sumptuously decorated with illuminations and marginal devices that show the influence of Armenian manuscript traditions even as they seem remarkably Western in execution. St. John is pictured holding the chalice with the dove of the Holy Spirit rising from it. The text of the work begins on the left with an ornate headpiece and decorative devices that clearly reflect both Armenian and Western artistic influences.
The Library of Congress recently inherited the papers of the renowned Armenian-American stage and film director Rouben Mamoulian (1897–1987), known for stage and screen classics such as George and Ira Gershwin’s <em>Porgy and Bess</em>, the Greta Garbo film <em>Queen Christina</em>, and the Rogers and Hammerstein musicals <em>Oklahoma</em> and <em>Carousel</em>. The bequest included this eighteenth-century Armenian manuscript that is sumptuously decorated with illuminations and marginal devices that show the influence of Armenian manuscript traditions even as they seem remarkably Western in execution. St. John is pictured holding the chalice with the dove of the Holy Spirit rising from it. The text of the work begins on the left with an ornate headpiece and decorative devices that clearly reflect both Armenian and Western artistic influences.