Ethiopian Icons
- Ethiopian Icons - Paintings on wood
Ethiopian Icons
Ethiopian icons are a comparativly recent discovery. Nobody would harldy have suspected the existence of such a large number of icons in the country, yet gradually the icons kept in churches and monasteries are now coming to light, and have substantially broadened our knowledge of Ethiopian art, besides offering documentation of particular aspects of it.
The quality and variety of the paintings on wood has proved to be indeed athonishing. In form, they include single panels, diptyches and triptyches. The majoritiy of Ethiopian icons are square-edged, but some have the upper edge rounded.The wood used is either form the olive tree or from the “wanza” tree (Cordia abyssinica). Normaly a thin layer of plaster is then applied to it, and vovered with tempera paint. From the 17th century, coloth was in many cases pasted on the wooden body of the icon, and then painted. The other surface of some icons was also covered with plaster and painted with decorative patterns which are often of great beauty.
Particulary intersting are small portable Ethiopian icons which were evidently popular in the 17th and 18th centuries. In its most develped form, the portable icon consitst of a panel with a protective cover on each side, and on the top an attachement.with a whole for the cord by which the icon was worn. The exact meaning and use of thes portable icons is not clear. It is believed that they were worn by monks as a sign of piety. Of some significance ist the fact that the wood-carvings a sometimes a copy in miniature of the carvings on the altar slab placed in every Ethiopian church, the tabot, which is the most venerated objecht in the church.
In addition to the subjects of the Crucifixion, the Ressurection and the Virgin, four further subjects appear frequently in th icons: the Flight into Egypt, Saint George, and the Ethiopian saints Tekle Haymanot and Gebre Menfes Quddus. The flight into Egypt, a familiar theme in Ethiopian manuscript illuminations, is of especial interest because it is so often represented in a setting taken from Ethiopian life. Saint Georges continues to be the saint preferred to all others, except the Virgin. The image of Tekle Haymanot and Gebre Menfes Qeddus are identical to those of other saints.
The Saints and Heros of Ethiopia
The subject of Saint George in paintings falls into two distinct groups. In the first group the saint is represented identically with other equestrian saints, riding a horse at gentle trot, and holding a spear slanting upwards. This representation of Saint George seems to be limited only to art of the 15th and early 16th century. In the second group Saint George is depicted in combat with a snake or dragon, inthe moment of spearing the monster; this form continues into the 20th century.
