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...
DetailsCreated 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 Mary”...
DetailsIn 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 genre...
DetailsThis 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 of materials affords...
DetailsIn 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 genre...
DetailsAlthough 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 featuring...
DetailsThis 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 of...
Please Subscribe or 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 books, but this old...
Please Subscribe or 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 credited to the late-seventeenth...
Please Subscribe or 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 form of Christianity. This...
Please Subscribe or 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 found on the icons are instrumental...
Please Subscribe or 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 imperial icon that was carried into...
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...
Please Subscribe or Donate to Help Keep This Site Free! This is an important Ethiopian Orthodox icon that was once owned by a parsonage. On the proper right panel it depicts the gruesome scene of St. George being chopped into pieces below the twelve apostles and the saint himself killing...
Please Subscribe or Donate to Help Keep This Site Free! An Ethiopian Orthodox painting on wood of the Virgin Mary nursing the infant Christ. The twelve Apostles are depicted on the opposing side panels. Dating places this work in the middle or second half of the 15th century. Free Downloads...
Please Subscribe or Donate to Help Keep This Site Free! 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...
Please Subscribe or Donate to Help Keep This Site Free! This is the only known icon devoted to the genealogy of a monastic order. Its subject is the "House of Ewost' atéwos," one of two major monastic orders of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Born circa 1273, St. Ewost' atéwos founded...
