Details: This beautiful brass blessing cross comes from the Ethiopian Orthodox tradition and is used to bless individuals or objects. It is a stunning example of the country's distinctive art and craftsmanship. The cross is hand-held and features intricate latticework characteristic of Ethiopian style and workmanship. The exact...
Details: Coptic Christians are members of the Coptic Orthodox Church, which is an Oriental Orthodox Christian church based in Egypt. The term "Coptic" refers to the ancient Egyptian language, which was spoken in Egypt until the end of the 17th century. The Coptic Orthodox Church is one of...
Details: This small icon was worn around the neck to ward off evil; it could be hung with either side facing out. This is a small replica of the famous icon known as the "Kwerata Reesu" (Christ with the Crown of Thorns), believed to protect the whole kingdom...
Details: This small icon was worn around the neck to ward off evil; it could be hung with either side facing out. This is a small replica of the famous icon known as the "Kwerata Reesu" (Christ with the Crown of Thorns), believed to protect the whole kingdom...
Details: This illuminated manuscript of the Four Gospels was created at a monastic center in northern Ethiopia. Twenty full-page paintings depict scenes from the life of Christ and four portraits of the evangelists introduce the respective Gospel texts. The New Testament was translated from Greek into Geez, the classical language...
Details: This leather-bound manuscript is a prayer book written in Gə’ez, the liturgical language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Its 144 folios features three distinct kinds of ornaments: a single full-page illumination; interlaced borders (haräg); and textual ornament, including punctuation marks and headers. The full-page illumination on folio 1v...
Details: This illuminated manuscript of the Four Gospels was created at a monastic center in northern Ethiopia. Twenty full-page paintings depict scenes from the life of Christ and four portraits of the evangelists introduce the respective Gospel texts. The New Testament was translated from Greek into Geez, the classical language...
Details: The squared cross—in which each of the crossbars is of equal length—is among the most common iterations of the form used in Ethiopian Orthodox art. Artist-monks created nearly infinite variations upon the shape, frequently employing multiple cross motifs within a single cross to emphasize its symbolic importance....
Details: This illuminated manuscript of the Four Gospels was created at a monastic center in northern Ethiopia. Twenty full-page paintings depict scenes from the life of Christ and four portraits of the evangelists introduce the respective Gospel texts. The New Testament was translated from Greek into Geez, the classical language...
Details: This illuminated manuscript of the Four Gospels was created at a monastic center in northern Ethiopia. Twenty full-page paintings depict scenes from the life of Christ and four portraits of the evangelists introduce the respective Gospel texts. The New Testament was translated from Greek into Geez, the classical language...
Details: Created under King Yohannes (1667–1682) or King Iyyasu I (1682–1706), this manuscript in the First Gonderine style—with bold outlines and a rich palette—includes 32 painted scenes narrating the miracles performed by the Virgin Mary, a series intended to guide weekly devotion. These codified “Miracles of...
Details: Created under King Yohannes (1667–1682) or King Iyyasu I (1682–1706), this manuscript in the First Gonderine style—with bold outlines and a rich palette—includes 32 painted scenes narrating the miracles performed by the Virgin Mary, a series intended to guide weekly devotion. These codified “Miracles of...
Details Created under King Yohannes (1667–1682) or King Iyyasu I (1682–1706), this manuscript in the First Gonderine style—with bold outlines and a rich palette—includes 32 painted scenes narrating the miracles performed by the Virgin Mary, a series intended to guide weekly devotion. These codified “Miracles of...
Details In the seventeenth century, Ethiopian artists were increasingly exposed to forms of expression from Europe. During this period, double-sided diptychs became popular among the nobility as pendant icons worn suspended by a cord around the neck. The subject matter depicted on this example is a standard program for this...
Details This cross was created in the province of Tigray, near the Red Sea, the birthplace of Ethiopia's earliest kingdom and of Christianity in Africa. A small corpus of Ethiopian Christian works from before the seventeenth century has survived. This exceptional creation, in which a highly unusual interplay...
Details In the seventeenth century, Ethiopian artists were increasingly exposed to forms of expression from Europe. During this period, double-sided diptychs became popular among the nobility as pendant icons worn suspended by a cord around the neck. The subject matter depicted on this example is a standard program for this...
Details Although Orthodox Christianity has been practiced in the highlands of Ethiopia since the 4th century, this elaborate triptych is rendered in the courtly First Gonderine style, which flourished during the reign of King Iyyasu I (1682–1706) and incorporated bold, richly decorated forms and figures. With its central panel...
Details This illuminated manuscript of the Four Gospels was created at a monastic center in northern Ethiopia. Twenty full-page paintings depict scenes from the life of Christ and four portraits of the evangelists introduce the respective Gospel texts. The New Testament was translated from Greek into Geez, the classical language...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! This image of King David playing a harp would have been bound in a Bible with the Psalms. In general, this museum does not acquire individual manuscript pages so as not to encourage the dismemberment of...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! This intimately-scaled illuminated manuscript is a luxury example of the Arganonä Maryam (The Organ of Mary), one of the most popular Ethiopian Orthodox prayer books dedicated to the Virgin Mary. It is one of ten works...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! Monasticism is an important feature of Ethiopian Christianity that needs to be understood by people interested in the history and teaching of the local Orthodox Church. The sources suggest that, for Ethiopians, monasticism is a higher...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! While Mary is most often depicted wearing a blue shawl, Ethiopian artists in the mid-16th century began painting the shawl red, a practice that related to their study of Cretan icons. The Ge'ez inscriptions...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! This large icon, meant to be seen by many people, was carried in church processions on holy days. The subject of Christ crowned with thorns and flanked by tormentors was modeled after Ethiopia's famous...
Please Subscribe or Donate to Help Keep This Site Free! The Orthodox Tewahedo biblical canon is a version of the Christian Bible used in the two Oriental Orthodox churches of the Ethiopian and Eritrean traditions: the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church. At 81 books, it...
