The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 13, 2025

Diptych, a two-panel painting, divided into four sections, each with three men with light skin tones standing in them except the lower right corner where four men cluster. The men have gold halos, short, black or greyed hair, some beards, and wear vibrant dark-blue, red, green, and gold robes. They raise their hands in front of their chests and look at each other, their names in black written in the language Gəˁəz above their heads.

Diptych with Twelve Apostles & St. Paul

c. 1700

Workshop or Circle of Wäldä Maryam

(Ethiopia, active mid- to late 1600s-early 1700s)
Africa, East Africa, Ethiopia, presumably Gondär
Tempera, wood, textile
39 x 51 cm (15 3/8 x 20 1/16 in.)
Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 2023.4
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Captions written in the language Gəˁəz identify each holy man by name. This African language is nearly 2,500 years old!

Description

Depicting 13 holy men, this diptych (two-panel painting) is sized for an Ethiopian Orthodox Christian church or elite home. It is painted in the bold, colorful style associated with royal court workshops from the early 1600s to the mid-1700s. Painter Wäldä Maryam (or someone he trained) set this scene of Christ’s apostles in the context of his homeland. Each saint wears fashionable clothing imported from India. While they are posed and dressed similarly to emphasize their group identity, the artist portrayed their faces and hairstyles individually. Captions in Ge’ez––an eastern African language dating to the 400s BCE––identify each by name.
  • The diptych painting comprises two wooden panels that are held together with a twisted cord material. Both panels are rough-hewn on the back (verso) with a gouge tool. Both panels vary in thickness between 1 cm (about 0.40 in) to 1.4 cm (about 0.55 in). The raised ridge around the perimeter was achieved by carving out the interior portion of the panel to create a flat surface. A woven cotton textile is adhered to the front of the wooden panels, followed by an even application of a gypsum-containing (calcium sulfate) ground layer. Pigments, ground with an aqueous binder composed of animal glue, are applied in a thin and even manner. While stable after a conservation treatment to consolidate minute losses, the paint surface is still considered fragile, consistent with distemper paintings of this age. Scientific analysis has confirmed that pigments present in the painting: smalt (blue), orpiment (yellow), vermilion (red), red lake (red), and indigo (blue), are historically correct for the period.
  • -2005
    Giuseppe Vimercati, Italy (b. 1943)
    -2023
    (Sam Fogg, Ltd, London, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    2023–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Windmuller-Luna, Kristen. “Africa & Byzantium: Spectacular treasures from diverse lands joined by deserts, seas, and rivers.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 64, no. 1 (2024): Cover, 4-7, 24. Reproduced: p. 24 archive.org
    "Looking Back to Look Forward: A Year in Highlights.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 65, no. 3 (2024): 38. Reproduced: p. 38 archive.org
  • Africa & Byzantium. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (co-organizer) (April 14-July 21, 2024).
  • {{cite web|title=Diptych with Twelve Apostles & St. Paul|url=false|author=Workshop or Circle of Wäldä Maryam|year=c. 1700|access-date=13 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2023.4