The Iconographic program and probable dating of the Ethiopian icon from the collection of the Museum of Russian Icons (Moscow)

Abstract

This study is focused on the iconographic program as well as the probable origins and date of an Ethiopian triptych from the collection of the Museum of Russian Icons (Moscow). Basically, the pictorial program of the icon follows the long-established tradition of Ethiopian icon painting of the 17th –18th centuries. At the same time, the strong influence of the iconographic conventions of the Gondarine scriptoria is also very conspicuous. The narrative character of the Healing of the Blinds episode and the rendering of architectural details and of clothing can easily be traced back to the tradition of illuminated manuscripts. On one hand, in terms of style, the triptych shows some typical features attributed to the so-called First Gondarine style that dominated Northern Ethiopia from the second half of the seventeenth through the first third of the eighteenth century. On the other hand, the icon’s style evinces some very unusual details. This leads to the suggestion that the triptych was painted at the very end of the First Gondarine style. Thus it seems reasonable to suggest the end of the first or the beginning of the second third of the eighteenth century as the most likely date of the icon.