Curatorial Notes
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.
Artwork Identification
Title Diptych with Twelve Apostles & St. Paul
Title (PT) Díptico com Doze Apóstolos e São Paulo
Title (ES) Díptico con los Doce Apóstoles y San Pablo
Artist Workshop or Circle of Wäldä Maryam
Artist Bio Workshop or Circle of Wäldä Maryam (Ethiopia, active mid- to late 1600s-early 1700s)
Date c. 1700
Work Type Painting
Location & Collection
Institution Cleveland Museum of Art
Source View Museum Page
License Creative Commons Public Domain Mark 1.0
