St. Luke as Painter: Post-Byzantine Icons in Early-Sixteenth-Century Ethiopia

Three early-sixteenth-century Italo-Cretan icons of the Virgin, the property of three Ethiopian churches dedicated to Mary, are presently held in great awe and are said to have been painted by the hand of St. Luke the Evangelist. This study reconstructs the history of how they were brought to Ethiopia and their reception at the royal court. Part of a group of icons acquired by two Ethiopian monastic scholars acting as agents for the emperor Ləbnä Dəngəl (r. 1508-1540), these icons probably arrived at the royal court before 1531. Soon after their arrival, one of the icons, known as The Adorned One, was placed in a shallow box, the lid of which was painted with scenes of Christ's Passion by Nicolò Brancaleon, a Venetian painter working for the royal court. Several factors led to the attribution of the icons to the hand of St. Luke. The tale of the miracle-working icon painted by St. Luke at Sedenya (Saidnaya) near Damascus was translated from Arabic into Ge'ez, or Ethiopic, in the early sixteenth century and undoubtedly stimulated an interest in miracle-working icons of the Virgin. Influence of a Westerner like Brancaleon or of the monks who traveled at Ləbnä Dəngəl's request was also a factor. As a native of Venice, Brancaleon not only was familiar with the cult of Byzantine icons painted by St. Luke but also probably knew of the practice of storing a St. Luke icon in a painted box. The reputed sanctity of the three Italo-Cretan icons of the Virgin led to their being treated as if they were sanctified altar tablets, which are so profoundly holy that they are not exposed to the gaze of the laity.