LOT 0378

Ethiopian Painted Parchment of Two Evangelist Portraits from a Gospel

CIRCA 1650-1700 A.D.

8 7/8 x 7 3/4 in. (19 grams total, 22.5 x 19.8 cm each).

Two leaves from a vellum manuscript, each with a hand-coloured image of a male figure (Evangelists) seated on low stools, covered with embroidered cloths, holding a vellum page in one hand and quill in the other, nimbus around their head; dressed in blue, red and green garments, in front of them two cups in brown and white colour. [2, No Reserve]

Ex central London gallery.
This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato.

Cf. image of Evangelist on a vellum page from Ethiopian Gospel Book, ex Gunda Gunda Monastery, 16th century A.D., Ethiopia, in The Walters Art Museum, accession no. W.850.153V.

During the Aksumite period, the Greek text of the Gospels was brought to Ethiopia and translated into Geez. Along with the Greek text came a standard method of Gospel manuscript production, as well as the Eusebian canon tables with their characteristic decoration and tholos miniature, and portraits of the evangelists. In the Gondar period, the tradition continued: usually the four Evangelists were portrayed as a series. Evangelist portraits serve as an introduction, and narrative illustrations were placed within the Gospel texts.