The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 19, 2024
Diptych with Twelve Apostles & St. Paul
c. 1700
(Ethiopia, active mid- to late 1600s-early 1700s)
39 x 51 cm (15 3/8 x 20 1/16 in.)
Location: 003 Special Exhibition Hall
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.
- -2005Giuseppe Vimercati, Italy (b. 1943)-2023(Sam Fogg, Ltd, London, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)2023–The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Windmüller-Luna, Kristen. “Africa & Byzantium: Spectacular treasures from diverse lands joined by deserts, seas, and rivers.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine vol. 64, no. 1 (2024): Cover, 4-7, 24.. Reproduced: P. 24.
- 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=19 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2023.4