painting
- Museum number
- 2012,2022.2
- Description
-
Rectangular painting on thick parchment; at the top a crowned lion holding the national flag of Ethiopia; below, a series of fifteen square framed "windows", arranged in five vertical rows of three on each line, each containing a separate cartoon-like scene illustrating episodes in the Ethiopian folk legend tradition of the Sheba-Solomon cycle, and captioned at the top of each in cursive Amharic. The captions read as follows.(from top left to bottom right): (1) He paid tribute to the python, (2) He caught the goat, (3) He killed the python, (4) They subdued the python, (5) Queen Makeda, (6) They travelled in a small boat, (7) With Solomon, (8) He took the maiden, (9) They slept together, (10) With Solomon, (11) They travelled in a small boat, (12) The assembly was received, (13) Menelik was king, (14) Makeda's last testament, (15) They built/set up [??] the obelisk/monument/stela.
- Production date
- 20thC
- Dimensions
-
Height: 51 centimetres
-
Width: 26.50 centimetres
-
Depth: 0.70 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Queen Makeda is the Ethiopian name of the Queen of Sheba; she is shown travelling up the Red Sea in box 6 in a reed-built boat that is typical of Lake Tana (rather than the open sea); box 8 illustrates Solomon's seduction of Makeda's maid; box 9 illustrates Solomon and Makeda in bed; box 11 again illustrates a Red Sea voyage; box 12 illustrates Makeda's son Menelik meeting his father Solomon; box 15 illustrates two of the 4th century stelae at Aksum in northern Ethiopia which popular local legend associate as funerary monuments for the Queen of Sheba.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
2004-2005 17 Oct-13 Mar, California, Bowers Museum, 'Queen of Sheba: Legend and Reality'
- Condition
- Excellent; flattened, mounted and framed for travel and display; recommended light level of 50 lux maximum for display; RH control recommended of 55% plus/minus 5%.
- Acquisition date
- 2012
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- 2012,2022.2
- Additional IDs
-
Miscellaneous number: EPH-ME.214 (Previous ME dept registration number)
