Between Alexandria and Rome? : reflections on artistic circulation and cross-cultural interaction in Ethiopian painting in the fifteenth century

Title: Between Alexandria and Rome? : reflections on artistic circulation and cross-cultural interaction in Ethiopian painting in the fifteenth century
Variant title:
  • Mezi Alexandrií a Římem? : úvahy o uměleckém oběhu a mezikulturních výměnách v etiopském malířství 15. století
Source document: Convivium. 2021, vol. 8, iss. 2, pp. [14]-33
Extent
[14]-33
  • ISSN
    2336-3452 (print)
    2336-808X (online)
Type: Article
Language
Summary language
License: Not specified license
Rights access
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Abstract(s)
The paper considers the appropriation of motifs borrowed from European visual culture in Ethiopian panel paintings under the rule of king Zärʾa Yaʿǝqob (1434–1468) in relation to a crucial crosscultural dialogue between Ethiopia and the Mediterranean region. It examines the different motivations at work in the process of visual encounters from both the Ethiopian and the Mediterranean cultural perspective. Its conclusion suggests that appropriation of foreign motifs, as well as forms and their assimilation into local visual tradition by fifteenth-century Ethiopian artists, were conscious and crucial parts of visual rhetoric used for representing the King of Ethiopia.
Note
This article is based on research supported by the Dr. Alfred Bader Scholarship for doctoral students conducting research on European art and architecture.