ETHIOPIAN ART

Historical Background of
ethiopian art
• Ethiopian
art refers to any
form of ancient
and
contemporary art
 made in Ethiopia
tracing from the
4th century until
the 20th century.
• First comes a
distinctive tradition
of Christian art,
mostly for
churches, in forms
including painting, 
crosses, icons, 
illuminated
manuscripts, and
other metalwork
such as crowns.
• Secondly, there are
popular arts and
crafts such as
textiles, basketry
 and jewelry, in
which Ethiopian
traditions are closer
to those of other
peoples in the
region. 
•  Its history goes back almost three
thousand years to the kingdom of D'mt.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church
 has been the predominant religion in
Ethiopia for over 1500 years, for most of
this period in very close relation, or union,
with the Coptic Christianity of Egypt, so
that Coptic art has been the main formative
influence on Ethiopian church art.
• Church paintings in
Ethiopia were
likely produced as
far back as the 
introduction of Chri
stianity
 in the 4th century
AD
• Ethiopian painting, on walls, in books, and
in icons,[5] is highly distinctive, though the
style and iconography are closely related to
the simplified Coptic version of Late Antique
and Byzantine Christian art. It is typified by
simplistic, almost cartoonish, figures with
large, almond-shaped, eyes. 
• Colors are usually
bright and vivid.
Most paintings are
religious in nature,
often decorating
church walls and
bibles.
• Churches may be very fully painted,
although until the 19th century there is little
sign of secular painting other than scenes
commemorating the life of donors to
churches on their walls. Unusually for 
Orthodox Christianity, icons were not
usually kept in houses (where talismanic
scrolls were often kept instead), but in the
church. Some "diptychs" are in the form of
an "ark" or tabot, in these cases consecrated
boxes with a painted inside of the lid, placed
closed on the altar .
• Ethiopian diptychs
 often have a primary
wing with a frame. A
smaller second wing,
which is only the size
of the image within
the frame, is painted
on both sides to allow
closed and open views
• Another important form of
Ethiopian art, also related to
Coptic styles, is crosses made
from wood and metal.[8][9] They
are usually copper alloy or brass,
plated (at least originally) with
gold or silver.
• The heads are
typically flat cast
 plates with
elaborate and
complex openwork
 decoration. The
cross motif emerges
from the
decoration, with the
whole design often
forming a rotated
square.
• The Lalibela Cross is an especially
venerated hand cross, perhaps of the
12th century, which was stolen from a
church in Lalibela in 1997 and
eventually recovered and returned from
a Belgian collector in 2001.
• Distinctive forms
of the crown were
worn in ceremonial
contexts by royalty
and important
noble officials, as
well as senior
clergy. 
• Royal crowns rose high, with a number of
circular bands, while church crowns often
resemble an elongated version of the
typical European closed crown, with four
arms, joined at the top and surmounted by a
cross.
• Ethiopia has great ethnic and linguistic
diversity, and styles in secular traditional
crafts vary greatly in different parts of the
country. There is a range of traditions in
textiles, many with woven geometric
decoration, although many types are also
usually plain. Ethiopian church practices
make a great deal of use of colorful textiles,
and the more elaborate types are widely used
as church vestments and as hangings,
curtains, and wrappings in churches
• although they have now largely been
supplanted by Western fabrics. Examples of
both types can be seen in the picture at the
top of the article. Icons may normally be
veiled with a semi-transparent or opaque
cloth; very thin chiffon-type cotton cloth is
a specialty of Ethiopia, though usually with
no pattern.
• The text itself is written in Ajami,
differing from the native Ge'ez script—
an alphabet used to write languages
local to Ethiopia and Eritrea. Ajami
refers to an adapted Arabic script
influenced by local languages primarily
spoken in Eastern Africa.
• The lack of representation for Islamic
manuscripts compared to other religious
texts from Ethiopia in mainstream
scholarship can be attributed to a variety of
reasons. A leading scholar in Islamic
manuscript cultures in Sub-Saharan Africa,
Dr. Alessandro Gori, ascribes this
disproportionate representation within
academia to a variety of socio-political
factors. Gori claims that a change in regime
 in 1991.
• Despite these challenges, academics,
curators, and the Ethiopian government have
made increasing efforts to inventory Harari
and other Islamic manuscripts. In
collaboration with the Institute of Ethiopian
Studies, Dr. Gori published a catalog of
Islamic codices in 2014 to help facilitate
future research on these manuscripts
• The obelisks in
Aksum are some
of the most
impressive
structures still
standing from
the ancient era
and can easily be
compared to the
significance of
the structures of
Pompei.
• Many of the Ethiopian paintings and
artifacts found in Ethiopia from around
the 14th century represent Biblical
icons that are reminiscent of those
seen in Western Art, and yet, these
icons seem to be quintessentially
Ethiopian.
• The above image is an example of
such a pendant. Again, we see the
iconic use of color and the cartoon-
like style of the figures. 
• Communism transformed Ethiopian
art. In Ethiopia, art students were
sent to Moscow to be retrained to
create work that mobilized the
masses and supported communist
ideals. An example of some of these
works is a monument called the
Tiglachin (Our Struggle) Memorial.
• Art and reality,
however, could
not have been
further apart.
The communist
regime was
highly
oppressive and
between 1976
and 1978, in an
era called the
Red Terror.
• A growing number of
art curators and
conservationists are
calling for galleries
and museums to
repatriate the
Ethiopian antiquities
acquired — even
inadvertently — on the
black market.
• In the last two
decades, traditional
sacred art, especially
icons, paintings and
banners, have been
competing for space
in shops with much
less expensive
chromolithograph
prints.
• Jewelry is another Ethiopian art form.
You can find antique silver jewelry as
well as new jewelry pieces that have
colourful beads and other substances
such as amber. Antique Ethiopian
silver jewelry typically has design
elements from African and Middle
Eastern cultures.
• No discussion of
Ethiopian art
would be
complete
without
mentioning the
beautiful hand-
woven fabrics
and textiles
produced in this
country. 
• The striking imagery
that has come out of
Ethiopia simultaneously
responds to its past
struggles, whilst
honoring its ancient
roots. One such artist
whose work plays on
this tension between the
complex past and
possible future of
Ethiopia