Iconic Icons Supplement: Ethiopian Icons
Like almost any product of man, icons contain differences depending on the culture in which they were made (besides even more differences from individual artists). Thus among icons, there are different styles relating to the different cultures of origin: Greek (Byzantine), Russian, Coptic, Ethiopian, etc. Usually in my posts, I include and discuss Byzantine icons, though Russian icons are also involved often. In this post, I wish to give a brief overview of another style of icons: Ethiopian iconography. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church began when Christianity was first widely spread to Ethiopia (discounting the Ethiopian eunuch converted by St. Philip in Acts 8) in the 5th century by a group of missionaries known now as the Nine Saints: Abba Aftse, Abba Alef, Abba Aragawi, Abba Garima (Isaac/Yeshaq), Abba Guba, Abba Liqanos, Abba Pantelewon, Abba Sehma, and Abba Yem'ata. It is conjectured that they were possibly refugees from persecutions after the Council of Cha...