Anna Russakoff

Associate Professor

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Professor Russakoff is a specialist in Gothic illuminated manuscripts. She has co-edited a volume on the fourteenth-century artist Jean Pucelle, and recently completed a monograph about miraculous images of the Virgin Mary in French illuminated manuscripts. She has also co-edited a volume about humans and animals in medieval France. Her current research project is about illustrations of cross-cultural animal fables. Russakoff has wide-ranging teaching interests, and enjoys broad surveys of art history in addition to more specialized classes. She is particularly enthusiastic about including the monuments and museums of Paris, France and Europe to enhance the classroom experience.



Education/Degrees

  • PhD, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
  • MA, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
  • BA, Brown University

Publications

  • “Some Reflections from Ground Zero,” 513–515 in “Forum: Meditations after the fire: Scholars on Notre Dame,” with Coll Thrush, Matthew S. Champion, Kacie Morgan, Una McIlvenna, and Constant J. Mews, in: postmedieval: a journal of medieval cultural studies 10/4 (2019), 513–526, special issue on “Music, Emotion,” guest-edited by Helen Dell, Andrew Lynch, and Elizabeth Randell Upton. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41280-019-00149-5.
    https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41280-019-00149-5
  • Monograph: Imagining the Miraculous: Miraculous Images of the Virgin Mary in French Illuminated Manuscripts, ca. 1250-ca. 1450. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2019. http://www.pims.ca/publications/new-and-recent-titles/publication/imagining-the-miraculous-miraculous-images-of-the-virgin-mary-in-french-illuminated-manuscripts-ca-1250-ca-1450
  • “The Jew, the Merchant and a Miraculous Image: Comparative Iconography in Gautier de Coinci's Miracles de Nostre Dame manuscripts,” in Jewish Identity and Comparative Studies/Judéité et Comparatism: Etudies offertes à Astrid Starck-Adler par ses collègues et amis à l’occasion de son soixante-quinzième anniversaire, edited by Roy Rosenstein and Danielle Buschinger. Amiens: Presses du Centre d’Etudes Médiévales de Picardie, 2019, pp. 387-397
  • Mobile Fables: Some Preliminary Notes on Cross-Cultural Animals and their Representations in the Kalila wa Dimna,” in Medieval Manuscripts in Motion: La Circulación de manuscritos iluminados en la Península Ibérica. Edited by Alicia Miguélez and Fernando Villaseñor Sebastian. Madrid: CSIC, 2018, pp. 255-265
  • “Kalila wa Dimna: les fables, les animaux et leurs images à travers les cultures,” in Mondes animaliers au Moyen Age et à la Renaissance: Actes du Colloque international des 8, 9, 10 et 11 mars 2016 à la Maison de la Culture d’Amiens. Edited by Danielle Buschinger et al. Amiens: Presses du Centre d’Etudes Médiévales de Picardie, 2016, pp. 378-387.
  • “Portraiture, Politics and Piety: the Royal Patronage of Gautier de Coinci’s Miracles de Nostre Dame (Paris, BnF NAF 24541).” Studies in Iconography, vol. 37 (2016): 146-180.
  • Human and Animal in Medieval France, 12-15th century, Co-editor with Irène Fabry-Tehranchi, Rodopi, Faux Titre Series, 2014.
  • Collaborative Illumination: Jean Pucelle and the Visual Program of Gautier de Coinci’s Les Miracles de Nostre Dame (Paris, BnF, n.acq.fr. 24541),” in Jean Pucelle: Innovation and Collaboration in Manuscript Painting, volume edited by myself and Kyunghee Pyun. Brepols/Harvey Miller; November 2013.
  • “The Virgin Hodegetria: an Iconic Formula for Miracle Illustrations in the West?” in La formule au Moyen-Âge. Edited by Elise Louviot, forthcoming from Brepols (estimated date of publication: May 2013).
  • “Miracles de la Vierge et handicap au XIIIe siècle,” in Handicaps et sociétés dans l’histoire : l’estropie, l’aveugle et le paralytique de l’Antiquité aux temps modernes. Edited by Franck Collard and Évelyne Samama. Paris : L’Harmattan, 2010, pp. 129-144.
  • Book review of Gautier de Coinci: Miracles, Music, and Manuscripts, ed. Kathy M. Krause and Alison Stones. Medieval Texts and Cultures of Northern Europe (Turnhout: Brepols, 2006), in Studies in Iconography 30 (2009), pp. 250-253.
  • Book review of Marina Vidas, The Psalter of Christina of Norway in the Collection of the Royal Library in Copenhagen (Copenhagen: Museum Tuscalanum Press, 2006), published by CAA.reviews on 26 July 2007.
  • Book review of Christopher de Hamel, The Rothschilds and their Collections of Illuminated Manuscripts (London: The British Library, 2005) and the French edition published by the Bibliothèque nationale de France in 2004, in The Book Collector 55, 4 (Winter 2006), pp. 616-619.
  • “The Role of the Image in an Illustrated Manuscript of Les Miracles de Notre-Dame by Gautier de Coinci: Besançon, Bibliothèque municipale 551,” in Manuscripta 47/48 (2003/2004), pp. 135-144.

Conferences & Lectures

  • Kalamazoo, International Congress on Medieval Studies, May 2019; invited to participate in roundtable session sponsored by the International Medieval Society, Paris, entitled, “Introduction to Libraries and Archival Work: Conducting research in Paris and France”
  • Lausanne, Switzerland, December 2018: Invited to participate in a doctoral seminar entitled, “Jeux de mains . . . la question de l’attribution dans les manuscrits.” Presented a paper entitled, “Les mains des artistes dans les deux premiers exemplaires du Miroir historial (BnF fr. 316 et Leiden University Library, Vossius Collection, ms. VGG F 3A)”
  • Poitiers, France, June 2018: presented a paper entitled “Formulas for Animals? Animal Iconography in a Fable and in Bestiaries” as part of the fourth conference in the series ‘La formule au Moyen Age’
  • Amiens, France, June 2018: presented a paper entitled “Miracles and Movement: Miraculous Images of the Virgin Mary in Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts” as part of a conference entitled ‘L’oeuvre en mouvement’
  • Kalamazoo, International Congress on Medieval Studies, May 2017: presented a paper entitled “Cross-Cultural Animal Fables: Comparative Iconography in Three Kalila wa Dimna Manuscripts.” Session sponsored by the Medieval Academy of America.
  • Paris France, October 2016: “The Mouse Transformed into a Girl: Cultural Boundary-Crossing in the Kalila wa Dimna” will present a paper as part of a seminar entitled “Travelling Texts and Translated Men: Postcolonialism and Migration across Disciplines.” American University of Paris.
  • Paris, France, July 2016: invited to speak at the British Archaeological Association Conference entitled “Paris: the Powers that Shaped the Medieval City” on Parisian illuminators. Paper entitled “Jean Pucelle, Mahiet and the Fauvel Master: Relationships Between Manuscript Illuminators in Fourteenth-Century Paris” 
  • Amiens, France, March 2016: conference entitled “Mondes animaliers au Moyen Age et à la Renaissance;” delivered a paper entitled “Kalila wa Dimna: les fables, les animaux et leurs images à travers les cultures”
  • St. Louis University, Manuscripta conference at the Vatican Film Library, October 2015; delivered a paper entitled: “Painted and Sculpted Images of Mary in ‘Miracles of the Virgin’ Illustrations”
  • Lisbon, Portugal, “Medieval Manuscripts in Motion” conference, March 2015; presented a paper entitled “Mobile Fables: Cross-Cultural Animals and their Representations in the Kalila wa Dimna”
  • Kalamazoo, International Congress on Medieval Studies, May 2014; presented a paper entitled, “Kalila and Dimna (Paris, BnF lat. 8504): Visual Lessons from Cross-Cultural Animals.” Session sponsored by the International Center of Medieval Art.

Affiliations

  • College Art Association
  • International Center of Medieval Art
  • Medieval Academy of America
  • International Medieval Society, Paris
  • Historians of Netherlandish Art
  • Hagiography Society

Research Areas

  • Illuminated manuscripts
  • Image-text relationships
  • Miraculous images
  • Animals in medieval art