Details

LOT 0374

Ethiopian Wooden Icon with Paintings of Saints

MID 17TH CENTURY A.D.

4 in. (91 grams, 10 cm high).

Carved portable icon with integral loop, frontal and rear recesses each with a door hinged with thread; painted scenes within of the Crucifixion and the meeting of Saint Abune Tekle Haimanot and Gabra Manfas Keddus (?), St. George attacking a dragon, Mary and Infant Jesus with angels Gabriel and Michael. [No Reserve]

Provenance

Reece Gallery, c. 2010.
Ex central London gallery.

Literature

See Chojnacki, S., 'Notes on Art in Ethiopia in the 16th Century: an Enquiry into the Unknown Author(s)' in Journal of Ethiopian Studies, Vol. 9, July 1971, No. 2 pp. 21-97, figs.14,28, for similar scenes in similar style; cf. also Heldman, M., Munro-Hay Stuart, C., African Zion, The sacred art of Ethiopia, Yale University Press, 1993, cat.11, for an icon in similar style, and p.7.

Footnotes

A series of icons representing the Virgin of Santa Maria Maggiore were produced in Ethiopia in the 16th and 17th centuries; the icon offered here is one such example. Sitting on the left arm of his mother, Christ gives a blessing with his right hand and holds a book in his left hand, both details showing a close relationship with the Santa Maria Maggiore version.