A History of Painting in East Gojjam in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries: A Study of the ‘Second Gondarine Style of Painting
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Date
2002-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
As early as the introduction of Christianity in the
fourth century A.D. painting apparently was an important
component of the Christian art of Ethiopia. Paintings that
have come to light so far date back to the eleventh century
A.D. This thesis attempts to study the last part of the
history of painting in Ethiopia by concentrating on a small
geographical unit, East Gojjam. In the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries the art of painting underwent significant
changes. Several different ways of expressing the same theme
emerged. Most important of the developments was the growing
regional variation and the emergence of schools.
Almost all of the paintings described and analyzed in
this thesis are paintings that are yet known to scholars of
art history. They are found in the different churches and
monasteries of East Gojjam. In reconstructing the history of
painting in East Gojjam in the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries contemporary as well as later written documents are
used in addition to the paintings. Oral information is also an
important source for this thesis.
The main focus of this thesis is showing the variations
in expression, selection of themes, rendering of costume and
composition at different times through the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries. In the first half of the eighteenth
century the Second Gondärine style of painting was introduced
in East Gojjam. In the middle and second half of the century
the style was widely in use for decorating church walls and
manuscript illumination. The period from the 1770s to the turn
of the century witnessed the flourishing of the style. Several
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churches were decorated and manuscripts were illuminated in
these churches. The painting of the eighteenth century did not
show significant variation. In the nineteenth century
variations in expression became very wide. In the last part of
the nineteenth century the art of painting flourished and a
large number of painters existed. The painting of this period
shows difference from the painting of the earlier period in
composition. An attempt has also been made to trace the
relationship between artistic and social and political
developments
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Keywords
Painting