tour 2 of 7
The Queen of Sheba
The Queen of Sheba in art and legend
The Biblical story of the Queen of
Sheba's visit to King Solomon heralded a long fascination
which has continued until modern times. This short account, devoid
of any physical description, direct reference to romantic encounter
or a religious conversion, has undergone extensive Jewish, Islamic,
Christian and Ethiopian elaborations in which the Queen is
described as beautiful but hairy-legged (the Jewish tradition,
Targum Sheni of Esther),
a convert to Islam (the Qur'an), a clairvoyant who
identifies the Cross of Christ (Jacopo de Voragine's
Golden Legend) and
Makeda, the Queen of Ethiopia, who gives birth to Solomon's
son (Kebra
Nagast).
The
works of art in this section provide an introduction to the great
range of her depictions and traditions: a drawing from Safavid
Iran, an eighteenth-century drawing after a Renaissance master, a
nineteenth-century watercolour influenced by contemporary
archaeological finds in Iraq, a Scottish Symbolist work of the
1920s and a painted narrative that illustrates the importance of
the Queen of Sheba to the national and religious identity of
Ethiopia.