The Indigenous and the Foreign in Christian Ethiopian Art

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.

Manuel João Ramos with Isabel Boavida

Contents: Introduction; Architecture And Urbanism: A tale of four cities: late 16th and early 17th Ethiopian capitals and their Turkish, Portuguese, and Indian connections, Richard Pankhurst; Ethiopian and Jesuit monumental stone architecture in the Lake Tana basin: a preliminary assessment, LaVerle Berry; Foreign influences and local contribution in Gondarian architecture, Fasil Giorghis; Portuguese and Indian influences on the architecture of the Lake Tana region: an inquiry into the rÃ-le of GÃ-nÃ-tÃ- IyÃ-sus, Ian Campbell; The monastery of MÃ-rtula Maryam: questions and speculations about its architecture and ornamentation, Paul B. Henze. Icon And Mural Paintings: Place, space and representation in 18th-century Gondarine painting, Tania C. Tribe; Ethiopian warrior saints in 18th-century miniature and their significance in the cultural history of Ethiopia, Stanislaw Chojnacki; The use of occidental engravings in Ethiopian painting in the 17th and 18th centuries: from the success of the book Evangelicae Historiae Imagines by Nadal at King Susniyos' court (c. 1610-11) to the murals in the Narga Sillase church (c. 1738-50), Claire Bosc-Tiessé; Analysis of 17th-century Ethiopian pigments, Anaïs Wion; Ahmad Graññ and the Portuguese in Ethiopian folk painting, Girma Fisseha. Decorative Arts: The Portuguese import of luxury textiles to Ethiopia in the 16th and 17th centuries and their subsequent artistic influence, Michael Gervers; Imported textiles in Ethiopian traditions, Martha H. Henze; The cross brought to Goa and Portugal by LibnÃ- Dingil' s envoy Mathew, Isabel Boavida; A military helmet and mail shirt at DÃ-brÃ- WÃ-rq, Goggam: two historic objects of probable earlier Portuguese provenance, Stephen Bell; Bibliography; Index.