Let’s go visit the IES Art gallery

The Institute of Ethiopian Studies of Addis Ababa University houses the internationally famous Gallery of Traditional Ethiopian Art. Housed on the top floor of Emperor Haile Sellassie’s former Palace, at Siddist Kilo, this vast exhibition hall has dimmed lighting which shows off the museum's brightly illuminated icons and other pictures to good effect.

Yared , the Deacon

The Gallery is adjacent to the Museum's splendid Music Centre – which contains examples of Ethiopian string, wind and percussion instruments. It is therefore appropriate that one of the first paintings you see on entering the hall illustrates the story of a legendary Ethiopian musical encounter of ancient times. Yared the Deacon, the reputed founder of Ethiopian church music, was, we are told, singing in front of the Aksumite emperor Gabre Mesqal, and was so thrilled by his song that he did not realise that the monarch had thrust his spear into his (Yared's) foot. When the performance was finished, the king, mortified by what he had done, declared that he would grant the songster any request. Yared asked to be allowed to become a monk.

This legendary tale is illustrated in two different types of picture. In one, the king, seated, is depicted sticking his spear into Yared's foot. In the other, displayed in the Institute's Gallery, we see the monarch, likewise seated, holding his spear in the air. Yared, standing in front of him, is holding a sistrum, or church rattle, in one hand, and in the other a staff which points threateningly towards the king’s foot.

Religious Icons

Turning to the right in the gallery, we soon come to one of its most important treasures. It is a triptych, or icon in three panels, dating from the fifteenth century.

The central panel represents the Virgin and Child. It is unusual in that she is holding in her left hand a small branch with three slender shoots, each ending in a bud. while her Son holds a small bird, barely visible, which is pecking at one of the buds. Mother and Child are protected by two Archangels, each carrying broadswords. They are flanked by Saints Peter and Paul, with five angels in the lower part of the picture.

The left-hand panel, divided into five rows, depicts the Apostles, and the Evangelists, together with two Ethiopian Saints: George, on horseback, and Gabre Krestos, standing. The right-hand panel depicts God, shown as the Ancient of Days, and various Prophets, each with a different gesture of their hands.

An Early Italian Artist

What is of no small interest about this painting, on your left, is that it was the work of a known Venetian artist by name Brancaleone. He was noticed by the early sixteenth century Portuguese traveler Father Francisco Alvares. The latter states that Brancaleone was one of two artists Venetian attached to the court of Emperor Lebna Dengel. Alvares also mentions in passing that the Italian “signed his pictures”- which was of course in those days = unusual. No one, however, paid any attention to this latter remark for several centuries – until our own day, when our friend, the British art historian Diana Spencer, traveling in Gojjam, found a painting which bore an inscription stating that it had been “painted by Niccolo, the Ferenje”, i.e, the Catholic European.

Brancaleone’s Christian name, we should note, was Niccolo – and the Institute is proud to display his painting.
Continuing our journey in the Gallery we come to another fine work, this time dating from the early seventeenth century. It is a diptych, or icon with two panels. That on the left depicts the Crucifixion. The Cross is set on a mound beneath which we see the skull of Adam. Jesus's blood is being collected by flying Angels, while Mary is seen with arms crossed in an expressive gesture of mourning. The right-hand panel depicts the Virgin and Child. She is dressed in a red cloak – not a dark blue one as usual, and holds a red flower, while her Son holds out a hand in blessing.

Very different is another two-panel diptych, dating from the eighteenth century. The left panel depicts a stylised St George, on horseback, holding a spear, with a jet-black background, while the right represents another Virgin and Child, with St Michael to the right, and St Gabriel to the right.

Maqdala Loot

Another interesting seventeenth century diptych illustrates the deposition of Christ, i.e. His being taken down from the Cross, on the left. On the right, Christ is depicted with the Crown of Thorns. This latter theme, an important one in Ethiopian art, is known as the Kwer'ata Re'esu, or Beating of His Head. It shows Christ in a blue cloak, with his hands raised in a distinctive attitude of prayer.

This icon is a copy of one which was traditionally important in Ethiopia. For hundreds of years a succession of monarchs kept it as a treasured possession, and took it with them when campaigning. This continued until April 1868, when Emperor Tewodros committed suicide at his mountain fortress of Maqdala to avoid capture by his British foes. After his death, and the extensive looting of Maqdala by the British, the icon disappeared from sight.
Shortly after his accession to the throne, Tewodros's successor, Emperor Yohannes IV, wrote in 1872 to Queen Victoria and to the British Foreign Secretary, requesting the painting's return. He did so, however, in vain. The Queen and the Minister both wrote back to say that the icon could not be found, and they "did not believe it had been taken to England".

In this they were, however, mistaken. It later transpired that the picture had been acquired at Maqdala by a British Museum employee, Sir Richard Holmes, who had been attached to the British Expedition as its "archaeologist". Sir Richard, who had by then become Queen Victoria's librarian at Windsor Castle, kept the icon as his private possession, but did not reveal this until after Emperor Yohannes's death. The original painting is now in Portugal – and deserves to be returned to Ethiopia.

The painting we see in the gallery is basically a copy of the looted icon, with the difference that two side figures have been added. Shown beating nails in Christ's head, they are painted in profile, the way in which evil people and enemies of the faith are traditionally depicted.

Another, much larger wall-painting on this theme can be seen facing the icon, on the nearby IES wall.

Byzantine Art in an African Setting

Ethiopian Christian Art has been described as “Byzantine Art in an African Setting”
And so it was: but as you tour the Gallery you should look out for so-called Gondarine art – so named after the 17th century Ethiopian capital city of Gondar, when a significant Ethiopianization of Ethiopian art occurred. In such art the themes are still Biblical – but: King will be depicted with a traditional Ethiopian crown; the Queen wearing an Ethiopian-style necklace; the soldiers – including, anachronistically, those of the Pharaoh crossing the Red Sea! – with rifles resembling those used in 18th century Ethiopia; and mules and horses with stirrups and saddle-cloths such as those found at that time in Ethiopia, etc., etc.

Such paintings must be considered not only as Works of Art – but also as Social Documents, illustrating the life of the Ethiopian People of the Past!

Processional Crosses

Besides the above paintings, and many others, the Art Gallery displays an important collection of Ethiopian processional crosses, dating from medieval to modern times. Such crosses, which express the artistic genius of the Ethiopian people, vary immensely in style, and display a remarkable variety of design. In some the basic shape of the Cross has virtually disappeared, leaving us with an artifact in the apparent form of a perhaps a circle, a square, or a diamond,

Of particular interest in the collection is a twelfth or thirteenth century "Lalibala-style" elongated iron cross. Oval, or pear-shaped in form, it is surrounded by a series of loops, six on each side, with a cross at the top, and a much larger one in the centre. Several crosses of this characteristic design can also be seen in some of the rock-hewn churches of Lalibala.

Please note that the crosses are arranged, as far as possible, to accompany icons of approximately the same age, or period.

Another interesting cross on display dates from the seventeenth or eighteenth century, and has a story attached to it . Some thirty years ago, in 1971, a British visitor to the Museum was seen looking intently at a similar cross there on display. Inquiry elicited the information that a not dissimilar cross had been found in his local church at Pelworth, near Stratford-on-Avon, and it soon became evident that it had been looted, like the above-mentioned icon, from Maqdala. A meeting of the parishioners in Pelworth was duly held, at which it was decided that it was wrong to keep stolen property. The parish priest, the Rev. F.B. Knowles, accordingly handed it to the present writer, then on leave in England, who brought it back to Ethiopia, and that's why its now on display in the museum!

Islamic Calligraphy

Besides the above Christian paintings and crosses the gallery contains an important collection of Islamic art, with beautifully written Holy Qorans, from Harar in eastern Ethiopia. They display Muslim calligraphy at its finest, and the Institute has recently taken steps to expand its already valuable Islamic collection.

Secular Paintings

Continuing our tour of the Gallery we proceed from Religious to Secular art. The former was painted by church artists, working for the Church, as they saw it, in the service of God. The coming, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, of increasing numbers of foreigners, diplomats, merchants and the like, had a major influence on Ethiopian painting. It created a market for works depicting Ethiopian historical or cultural themes. The old church artists, or in many cases their sons, responded by abandoning the painting of religious themes, in favour of more specifically Ethiopian subjects. These were, however, largely executed in traditional style. The development thus represents a change in artistic direction rather than a complete break with the past.
One of the most important Secular Paintings in the Gallery represents the Battle of Adwa, which was fought, as most readers will know, at the beginning of March 1896. The battle had its roots, it will be recalled, in the Wuchale Treaty, signed between Emperor Menilek of Ethiopia and the Italian Government in 1889. This treaty was written in two languages, Amharic and Italian. The Amharic text stated that Menilek could use the good offices of the Italians in his correspondence with other countries, but the Italian text said he must do so. On the basis of this latter version Italy claimed a Protectorate over the entire country. Menilek rejected this claim, and the dispute could only be settled by war.

The decisive battle, fought near Adwa - hence its name - took place on St George's Day. St George is therefore depicted in a circular device at the top of the painting, fighting of course on the Ethiopian side. In this work, and others like it, the Ethiopians are seen on the of the painting, and the enemies - in this case the Italians - on the right. The work, like religious paintings of the past, made no attempt at perspective, with the result that the size of a persons depicted reflects his importance rather than his proximity: Ethiopian chiefs and Italian commanders thus appear much larger than their followers. The Ethiopians, following the old artistic rule earlier referred to, are painted in full-face, with two eyes, while the enemy, like the evil-doers of old, are in profile, with two eyes. Some of the Italians, if killed, are, however, no longer enemies, and can therefore be seen in full-face.
Also interesting, but very different is a village seen depicting the cultivation of sorghum, with three farmers reaping it with their sickels, and a woman in white preparing it for dinner.

And when you have finished your artistic journey in the Gallery you can change your Muse, and move into an entirely different area of creativity, in the adjacent Music Centre, the Emperor’s Bedroom, or the Anthropological Museum on the floor below.