Ross, Marvin C. (Marvin Chauncey), 1904-1977

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Typescript article written by Marvin C. Ross titled, "Two Gem Carvings of the IV Century A.D. and two photographs published under Archaeological Notes in the American Journal of Archaeology, 61, 1957, pages 173-174 and plate 67. Plate 67 includes Fig. 1, Intaglio of Constantine the Great, from a cast and Fig. 2 Chalcedony gem. Head of a youth, IV century, both in the Walters Art Gallery.

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Dumbarton Oaks stationary leaf dated May 18, 1956 with signatures of Byzantine scholars of possible conference attendance on Byzantine art? Includes a note written in Greek.

Scope and Contents: Handwritten letter from Marvin C. Ross to Mildred Bliss to share his work on Byzantine enamels and project as outlined to the Bollinger Foundation. He says that since more enamals are dated than any other minor arts except manuscripts, this corpus and history which he has included may turn out to be of great importance in the study of Byzantine art.Once the enamals are finished, Marvin wants to go on and write his history of Byzantine jewellery and glyptics. He tells Mildred that...

Scope and Contents: Handwritten letter from Marvin C. Ross to Mildred Bliss sending the review by V. Laurent of the handbook on "The Dumbarton Oaks Collection" in the Revue des Etudes Byzantine, XIV, 1956, pages 298-300. review is in French. Marvin tells Mildred that Laurent's criticism is 1) correct about the inscription on the silver cross -- "we can now say the Cross of Romanus II"; 2) He is wrong about the pilgrim's token. Seals are round, not rectangular and in addition the D.O. example was found with...

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Handwritten letter and black and white photograph from Lotus Robb Ross and Marvin C. Ross to Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss informing them that the ring shown in the photograph is an imperial marriage ring in gold and niello, Byzantine (Constantinople), late VI-VII Century, from the imperial workshop. The Ross's feel certain that the imperial couple on this ring want the Mother of God to extend her grace to Bliss's.

Scope and Contents: Handwritten letter from Marvin C. Ross to Mildred Bliss and Robert Woods Bliss reporting he is off. The Russians made two concessions for his travel, 1) he is allowed to travel alone and 2) he has been given 30 days instead of 25 and the possibility of an extension. He feels it is wonderful and he is so excited.On Wednesday [July 17, 1957?], Marvin will see The Hermitage, and he "owes all this to Dumbarton Oaks!"He tells them the book on enamels will be a distillation...

Scope and Contents: Handwritten letter on printed letterhead (Gostinitsa "Savoi", G. Moskva) from Marvin C. Ross to Mildred Bliss and Robert Woods Bliss reporting he arrived late at night in Moscow the day before last and yesterday spent time at the Pushkin Museum and the Historical Museum. He is seeing a few things and arranging others to be taken out of the cases on Monday and Tuesday morning. The afternoon was his first visit to the Kremlin as it was closed in 1939. He reports "startling treasures there",...

Scope and Contents: Handwritten letter from Marvin C. Ross to Mildred Bliss and Robert Woods Bliss reporting that they gave him a beautiful day yesterday. The Juritzky [Antonin Juritzy-Warberg] visit was one he had long wanted to make and proved to be better than he expected.Marvin hopes that "some day that the emperors globe with the [?] and the eagle's head from an imperial scepter will on day go into your collection. They are fine and terribly important items.""While looking at the...

Scope and Contents: Handwritten letter on stamped letterhead (Gostinitsa "Inturist", G. Tbilisi) from Marvin C. Ross to Mildred Bliss and Robert Woods Bliss telling them he wished that they could have been with him when after a four days struggle they opened the vault for me in Kiev. Such a treasure of beautiful objects, a diodem, necklaces, earrings, encolpia, etc. in gold, silver and enamel. He says they would have loved them as I did. Marvin was also startled to find two other pendants (enameled) like the...

Scope and Contents: Handwritten letter from Marvin C. Ross to Mildred Bliss offering a brief summary of his iedeas on the Byzantine glass cameos of the XI-XIII centuries. Three came from Constantinople and two have Byzantine settings that make the Dumbarton Oaks Collection of considerable importance in the future study of these glass paste cameos. The other glass paste in D.O. [Dumbarton Oaks] is probably VII century and is not concerned here. He tells her the Dumbarton Oaks group of paste (Byzantine) is the...

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Handwritten letter from Marvin C. Ross to Mildred Bliss telling her Mrs. E.V. Stande from Los Angeles was at Dumbarton Oaks. Marvin and his wife, Lotus took her through the Collection and gardens. "She was quite carried away." He reports Virginia Lewis of the University of Pittsburgh wanted to see the library and gardens. She was enchanted with the gardens and bowled over by the library on Byzantine art.

Scope and Contents: Handwritten letter from Marvin C. Ross to Mildred Bliss telling her that intriguing packages of books have been coming from famous booksellers all over Europe. "Your exhibition demonstrated what great taste you have in books so I feel certain you have acquired some more great books.He and the young people at Dumbarton Oaks can hardly wait for her to start the parterre. They speculated about the design and admired the fountain. He says "So you must come back to us soon and get it...

Scope and Contents: Handwritten letter from Marvin C. Ross to Mildred Bliss with a typescript copy of the apocryphal legend of the ascent of Alexander the Great published by R.S. Loomis "Alexander's celestial journey" in The Burlington Magazine, no. CLXXXI, Volume XXXII, April 1918, pl. 136-140. Marvin thought Mildred would enjoy the story. Marvin adds "subject cut intaglio on a gold ring in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection. This is the only known example of the subject in goldsmith's work."He tells...

Scope and Contents: Handwritten note from Marvin C. Ross to Mildred Bliss and sending his recently published article titled "A tenth century Byzantine glass lamp" published in Archaeology, volume 10, issue 1, 1957. Marvin tells Mildred the Byzantines were practical in their daily life. "A scholar could lower his lamp for reading or raise it for diffused light!"The article highlights a tenth century Byzantine glass lamp acquired in 1946 for the Dumbarton Oaks Collection "from a dealer who stated that...

Scope and Contents: Handwritten letter from Marvin C. Ross to Mildred Bliss that is was wonderful for her to show her beautiful cameo to Dr. Marie-Louise Vollenweider. He hesitated calling Mildred, but remembered how disappointed he had been after travelling a long distance and not being able to see something. He tells her she lived up to her high standard and were perfectly marvelous.He says the afternoon was so exciting because Dr. Vollenweider was the first person to come here recently and...

Scope and Contents: Handwritten letter from Marvin C. Ross to Mildred Bliss reporting that her enamal of St. Demetrius is pure joy to him. He thinks it is one of the most beautiful things in the world! He tells Mildred that she and her husband, Robert Woods Bliss are conoiseurs and how wonderful of them to have brought such an exquisite thing to America. Mildred's ears must have been burning recently as so many fine things have been said about you and Dumbarton Oaks by visitors, Mary Churchill Humphrey from...

Scope and Contents: Handwritten letter from Marvin C. Ross to Mildred Bliss telling her the story of the boy and the violin was beautiful and delightful. He says her luncheon on Saturday (May 4, 1057?) was like being in a fairy land because the garden was so charming.Jack [John Thacher, Director of Dumbarton Oaks] asked Marvin to come in on Sunday morning (May 5, 1957) and talk with people about Mildred's Byzantine collection. The men were fascinated with the collection and charmed with the...

Scope and Contents: Handwritten letter from Marvin C. Ross to Mildred Bliss providing a status report on the Catalogue of the Dumbarton Oaks Byzantine Collection. He attaches a copy of the report [Catalogue of the Dumbarton Oaks] he made to Jack [John Thacher], Dumbarton Oaks Director. He says the catalogue has been a great labor of love and he is happy he did it. Marvin Ross feels that when all the material is published the name of Dumbarton Oaks will have to appear in every book on Byzantine art....

Scope and Contents: Handwritten letter from Marvin C. Ross to Mildred Bliss reporting that he has just written an entry for the Catalogue on the red jasper cameo with the Gorgon's [Medusa] head. He feels it is a fascinating object and needs more attention some day. He informs Mildred that the Gorgon's head became a great favorite for amulets and other ways. He says it was the idea of making an ugly face that would scare away a bad man and continued in use long into the Christian era. On the leaf of a Consular...

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Handwritten letter from Marvin C. Ross to Mildred Bliss telling her that Lotus [Lotus Robb Ross, his wife] brought Blanche Yurka to see Mildred's gardens and collection. She says "She is playing "Jane Eyre" [on Broadway, New York]. Marvin reports that Blanche was enchanted and said "How wonderful to have given so much beauty to enjoy!"

Scope and Contents: Handwritten letter from Marvin C. Ross to Mildred Bliss. He says he has heard from Isabel Denison that Mildred has a cold. He tells Mildred to take care of herself and get over it quickly as "we need you always."He tells Mildred that Miss Der Nersessian feels it is unwise to send the information on the Dumbarton Oaks catalogue to Holinlose[?] in view of what happened about Deurus[?]. He feels the catalogue of your [Dumbarton Oaks] collection should be the best possible and not to...

Scope and Contents: Handwritten letter from Marvin C. Ross to Mildred Bliss reports that Mr. Wittig, a publisher from Hamburg wants to do a picture book about Mount Athos and asked if I would be willing to do the introduction and captions. Mr. Wittig had the most beautiful pictures imaginable made by a Benedictine monk who went there. They looked at other books on Mount Athos at Dumbarton Oaks and the pictures were all wretched in comparison.Not only were Wittig's photographs of the landscape and...

Scope and Contents: Handwritten letter from Marvin C. Ross to Mildred Bliss telling her that his paper on the Riha-Stouma treasure read at the annual meeting of the College Art Association seemed to go over alright. He intends to write it up more formally for publication.He reports that the Strzygowski, Byzantine gold medallion at Dumbarton Oaks was struck and not cast. He lists the reasons why this is important, 1) It was doubtless struck in the imperial mint; 2) It was an issue, not a singleton by...

Scope and Contents: Handwritten letter from Marvin C. Ross to Mildred Bliss reporting that as he was working on the catalogue of the Dumbarton Oaks [Byzantine] Collection, he discovered that the Riha and Stouma [Stuma] treasures were all one and the same and that the chalice from Aleppo [Syria] in the British Museum was part of this treasure.Two things led Marvin to this conclusion 1) the liturgical fan from the Riha treasure acquired by her is obviously the mate (they came in pairs) to the fan in...

Scope and Contents: Handwritten letter from Marvin C. Ross to Mildred Bliss providing her new information about the Dumbarton Oaks collection. He mentions he has an article in the next number of the D.O. [Dumbarton Oaks] Papers on the Dumbarton Oaks (ex. Strzygowski) gold medallion. There was a question whether this medallion was struck or cast. Mr. Young at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston had discovered a new means of determining that. Jack [John Thacher, Director of Dumbarton Oaks] sent the medallion up to...