Exh. Cats. by Gallery
Art of Ethiopia
300 x 240 mm, paperback, 128 pp., 150 colour illustrations
PRICE: £30.00
ISBN: 9780954901462
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Introduction by C. Griffith Mann, with texts by Arcadia Fletcher
The unique character of Ethiopian art is the legacy of its situation high in the mountains on the Horn of Africa. Though remote and often isolated it evolved a tradition, going back to the fourth century AD, in response to contacts with Byzantine, European and Islamic cultures.
Beginning in the twelfth century, elaborate crosses were cast and engraved in iron and bronze. Painted and carved icons were produced in a tradition that reached its peak at the end of the seventeenth century. Above all it is richly illustrated manuscripts that have provided the most defining expression of Ethiopian Christianity.
This exhibition and catalogue celebrates the most gifted, inventive and eccentric amateurs of the 18th and early 19th centuries with a selection of drawings, engravings and portraits gathered from Soane's collection and other museums, archives and private houses around the country. More