Ethiopia’s oldest icon may not have come from Byzantium, but was instead painted in eastern Africa by a master from Siena who travelled there as early as the 14th century. This revolutionary theory is put forward by the French specialist Jacques Mercier in his new book Art of Ethiopia. If correct, it would represent one of the earliest important direct artistic links between Europe and sub-Saharan Africa after Roman times.
The triptych, Image of Our Lord Jesus Christ, belongs to the Church of the Saviour of the World. This church is in the hamlet of Gurji near the monastery of Tadbaba Maryam (Tabernacle of Mary), which is set in an extremely remote spot in the mountains of Wello province in northern Ethiopia. It is a miraculous icon and is displayed only once a year and occasionally to aid women who are finding it difficult to conceive.
When the icon was first seen by the British art historian Diana Spencer in 1970 she had made a hazardous five-day journey by mule, climbing from the nearest road. The monastery is at an altitude of around 3,400m, at the summit of a volcanic table mountain. She was apparently only the third European to have reached it in 500 years. Although Ethiopia’s road network has expanded since then, by the time of Mercier’s trip it was still a full day’s journey by mule.
The triptych (90cm wide when open) depicts the blessing Christ with five archangels in the central panel. The two wings have standing figures of the archangels Michael and Gabriel. Seven archangels are common in Ethiopian iconography, although in European art there are often fewer.
At the bottom of the central panel, inscribed on the book, is a slightly later inscription identifying the figure as Christ. The inscription is written in Ge’ez, the ancient liturgical language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
