The Indigenous and the Foreign in Christian Ethiopian Art: On Portuguese-Ethiopian Contacts in the 16th–17th Centuries

Description

In the rural plateaux of northern Ethiopia, one can still find scattered ruins of monumental buildings that are evidently alien to the country's ancient architectural tradition. This little-known and rarely studied architectural heritage is a silent witness to a fascinating if equivocal cultural encounter that took place in the 16th-17th centuries between Catholic Europeans and Orthodox Ethiopians. The Indigenous and the Foreign in Christian Ethiopian Art presents a selection of papers derived from the 5th Conference on the History of Ethiopian Art, which for the first time systematically approached this heritage. The book explores the enduring impact of this encounter on the artistic, religious and political life of Ethiopia, an impact that has not been readily acknowledged, not least because the public conversion of the early 17th-century Emperor Susïnyus to Catholicism resulted in a bloody civil war shrouded in religious intolerance. Bringing together work by key researchers in the field, these studies open up a particularly rich period in the history of Ethiopia and cast new light on the complexities of cultural and religious (mis)encounters between Africa and Europe. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Contents List of Illustrations List of Contributors Acknowledgments Introduction PART ONE: Architecture and Urbanism 1 A Tale of Four Cities: Late-16th and Early-17th Century Ethiopian Capitals and their Turkish, Portuguese and Indian Connections 2 Ethiopian and Jesuit Monumental Stone Architecture in the Lake Tana Basin: A Preliminary Assessment 3 Foreign Influences and Local Contribution in Gondarian Architecture 4 Portuguese and Indian Influences on the Architecture of the Lake Tana Region: An Inquiry into the Role of Gänätä Iyäsus 5 The Monastery of Märtula Maryam: Questions and Speculations about its Architecture and Ornamentation PART TWO: Icon and Mural Paintings 6 Place, Space and Representation in 18th-Century Gondarine Painting 7 Ethiopian Warrior Saints in 18th-Century Miniatures and their Significance in the Cultural History of Ethiopia 8 The Use of Occidental Engravings in Ethiopian Painting in the 17th and 18 th Centuries 9 An Analysis of 17th-Century Ethiopian Pigments 10 Ahmad Graññ and the Portuguese in Ethiopian Folk Painting PART THREE: Decorative Arts 11 The Portuguese Import of Luxury Textiles to Ethiopia in the 16th and 17th Centuries and their Subsequent Artistic Influence 12 Imported Textiles in Ethiopian Traditions 13 The Cross brought to Goa and Portugal by Libnä Dingil's Envoy Mathew 14 A Military Helmet and Mail Shirt at Däbrä Wärq, Goggam: Two Historic Objects of Probable Earlier Portuguese Provenance Bibliography Index