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Document Details : Title: Approaching an Ethiopian Icon (Icon Inv.no. 86-307 678, Staatliches Museum für Völkerkunde, München) Author(s): MARX, Annegret Journal: Journal of Eastern Christian Studies Volume: 64 Issue: 1-2 Date: 2012 Pages: 67-90 DOI: 10.2143/JECS.64.1.2961386 Abstract : The Ethiopian icon SMV 86-307 678 from the Museum of Ethnology in Munich, Germany, is one of the most famous 17th century icons of the First Gondarene style. It is a diptych, with representations of the ‘Crucifixion’, ‘Resurrection’ and ‘Man of Sorrows’ on the left panel and ‘St Mary with the child’, ‘Covenant of Mercy’, ‘the Ark of the Covenant being captured’ and ‘David dancing in front of the Ark of the Covenant’ on the right panel. This icon has been described several times before in exhibition catalogues, but the implication and relevance of the outstanding iconographical program has never been discussed before. This rare iconographical program caught my attention when I was curator of an exhibition in Frankfurt (2007/08). In this article I try to find the painter’s spiritual idea behind his work and its iconographical implementation: In three registers it represents along its pictorial program the Prayer of Faith (Credo) and combines in important aspects the self perception of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and State. |
