Diptych Icon: Saint George, Virgin and Child with Archangels,

probably late 15th–early 16th century

Religious images painted on wood panels in the forms of diptychs and triptychs proliferated in mid-fifteenth-century Ethiopia, especially in connection with the veneration of the Virgin Mary promoted by the emperor Zärʾa Yaʿǝqob (r. 1434–68). Large painted panels played a central role in liturgical ceremonies and processions, while smaller panels served as private devotional and protective objects. This diptych’s two panels originally were attached with strings running through the paired holes along the inner edges. In the right panel, Mary, holding the Christ Child, is flanked by the archangels Michael and Gabriel, who are identified by inscriptions in Gǝʿǝz (Classical Ethiopic). The inscription above Mary and Christ, now slightly faded, reads: “Image of Our Lady Mary with Her Beloved Son.” The left panel, inscribed “Image of Saint George, Martyr,” portrays the saint on a white horse. The painting style resembles that of sixteenth-century illuminated manuscripts produced in northern Ethiopia.

Meseret Oldjira, Graduate School Class of 2024