Histoire et cultures de l'Asie centrale préislamique - Frantz Grenet

Frantz GrenetCollège de FranceChaire Histoire et cultures de l'Asie centrale préislamiqueAnnée 2023-2024Interweaving Eurasian Visual and Material Arts: Beyond Space and TimeConférence - Mariachiara Gasparini : Interlocked Animals and the European Inheritance of Mongol Golden WeavingsMariachiara GaspariniAssistant Professor of Chinese Art and Architectural History, Department of the History of Art and Architecture, College of Design, University of OregonRésuméTracing back to the four interlocked ibexes walking in a circle that features the so-called "Hunt Patera" (in the Louvre Museum) from the temple of Baal at Ugarit, Syria, dated to the 14th-13th century BCE, this lecture discusses the original cosmogonic meaning of interlocked animal motifs, such as the three- or four-hare circle, which first appeared in a 6th century Buddhist cave in Dunhuang, Gansu Province, China, as a Buddhist Sinicization of a Turko-Iranian iconography. Three- or four-hare circles, as well as three or four-lion circles, eventually reappeared in Italian Christian architecture in the 12th century and spread again across Eurasia during the Mongol period through golden weavings, which in the 14th century began to be cataloged in Italian and French sources as nacchi or nachetti and nachis and naques respectively.

Frantz GrenetCollège de FranceChaire Histoire et cultures de l'Asie centrale préislamiqueAnnée 2023-2024Interweaving Eurasian Visual and Material Arts: Beyond Space and TimeConférence - Mariachiara Gasparini : The Sino-Turkic-Iranian Artistic Identity of the Early TibetansMariachiara GaspariniAssistant Professor of Chinese Art and Architectural History, Department of the History of Art and Architecture, College of Design, University of OregonRésuméIn the 7th century, the Tibetans began to dominate a broad territory that extended across the Qinghai-Tibet plateau. It was suggested that some ideas and practices of their indigenous Bon religion were acquired from western Tibet, which was once inhabited by Iranian tribes. But, most likely, the Tibetans acquired many traditions and customs from the Western Turks, who were also appointed as their ministers. Recent material from Qinghai and Gansu Provinces, namely textiles and metal objects, show a combination of Sino-Iranian elements, used in a Turko-Tibetan environment. Eventually, by converting to Buddhism, the Tibetans acquired an educational system and a cosmopolitan status.Through a comparative analysis of objects of art, this lecture discusses the creation, development, and patronage of early Tibetan aesthetics between the 7th and 9th centuries.

Frantz GrenetCollège de FranceChaire Histoire et cultures de l'Asie centrale préislamiqueAnnée 2023-2024Interweaving Eurasian Visual and Material Arts: Beyond Space and TimeConférence - Mariachiara Gasparini : The So-Called "Sasanian-Sogdian" Textiles and the Longue Durée of the Beaded RoundelMariachiara GaspariniAssistant Professor of Chinese Art and Architectural History, Department of the History of Art and Architecture, College of Design, University of OregonRésuméThis lecture discussed the often-labeled Sasanian or Sogdian silk textiles featuring beaded roundels enclosing animals which became very popular across Eurasia for the entire Middle Ages. Although some animals, such as the duck, ram, or flying horse, might be attributed to the Iranians, others began to appear during the first Turkic Khaganate in the 6th century. The Chinese did not wear these textiles but produced them in the western regions where the majority were discovered in the last century. Such textiles were eventually traded to Byzantium, which established its silk production. Erroneously classified as zandanījī by Walter Henning in 1959, those that survive today are mainly datable to the early Islamic period, and strongly influenced Eurasian art and architecture.

Frantz GrenetCollège de FranceChaire Histoire et cultures de l'Asie centrale préislamiqueAnnée 2023-2024Séminaire : A new reading of Chinese accounts on the Yuezhi and early Kushans, in relation with the recently discovered inscriptions at Almosi (Tajikistan) (8)Frantz GrenetProfesseur du Collège de FranceChao-jung ChingChercheuse invitée, Research Institute for Buddhist Culture, Ryukoku University, Japon – Chercheuse auxiliaire, Center for Studies of Ancient Chiense History, Université de Pékin, ChineOrganisé en collaboration avec Ching Chao-jung, MdC, Centre Hakubi / Institut de recherches en sciences humaines, professeure associée à l'université de Kyoto. Les séances seront en français et en anglais.RésuméPlusieurs questions relatives aux périodes pré-kouchane (Ier siècle av. n. è.) et kouchane ancienne (Ier siècle de n. è.) en Bactriane et dans l'Inde du nord-ouest seront discutées, en relation avec des documents archéologiques et épigraphiques nouvellement découverts ou en cours de réévaluation. Parmi eux :les broderies bactriennes trouvées à Noin Ula (Mongolie), montrant une procession et un sacrifice auxquels participe un souverain Yuezhi ;les documents frontaliers chinois sur plaquette de bois de Xuanquan (Gansu) (Ier siècle av. n. è.) ; l'inscription royale en deux langues d'Almosi (Tadjikistan), qui a conduit à reconsidérer l'inscription en trois langues du Dasht-i Nawur (toutes deux env. 100 de n. è.) et à produire de nouvelles hypothèses sur l'écriture nommée par convention « l'écriture inconnue ».À chaque étape de la présentation historique l'information tirée des chroniques chinoises sera contrôlée directement sur les textes.Une attention particulière sera consacrée à de récents articles de Harry Falk, très suggestifs mais nécessitant une discussion : « The Five Yabghus of the Yuezhi », Bulletin of the Asia Institute, 28, 2014 [2018], p. 1-43 ; « Kushan Religion and Politics », id., 29, 2015-2019 [2019], p. 3-55 ; « Faxian and Early Successors on Their Route from Dunhuang to Peshawar. In Search of the "Suspended Crossing" », id., 31 2022-2023, p. 1-48. Les récentes publications de Shōsin Kuwayama (en japonais) sur la chronologie kouchane seront aussi considérées.L'avant-dernière séance (10 juin) sera consacrée à une table ronde autour du livre récent d'Étienne de la Vaissière, Asie centrale 300-850. Des routes et des royaumes, Les Belles Lettres, 2024.