Demarginalizing Medieval Africa: Images, Texts, and Identity in Early Solomonic Ethiopia (1270-1527)

这个项目旨在揭示埃塞俄比亚帝国的艺术，历史和文化，从一个新王朝的兴起到1527年的崩溃，这个新王朝声称是圣经中的所罗门国王的后裔。这一时期（通常被称为所罗门时期早期（1270-1527年））制作的埃塞俄比亚手稿中装饰着色彩缤纷的象形图案，这与撒哈拉以南非洲地区制作的任何其他作品都不同，体现了制作这些图案的艺术家的精神抱负和文化身份。埃塞俄比亚帝国是继古埃及之后非洲寿命最长的帝国。然而，尽管有成千上万的关于古埃及艺术的出版物，埃塞俄比亚的视觉文化仍然被边缘化和误解。大多数中世纪艺术和手稿插图的调查书籍忽略了埃塞俄比亚东正教传统提供的证据。同样，许多关于非洲艺术的调查书籍也将埃塞俄比亚的遗产与非洲大陆的其他地区分开。因此，埃塞俄比亚艺术仍然不公正地处于关于非洲和中世纪艺术的学术话语的边缘，处于关于中世纪主义和东方主义的辩论的边缘，而埃塞俄比亚艺术家的作品继续被不适当地看待，以确定一系列来自非非洲背景的外国“影响”，而不是理解文化，宗教，现在是采取一种关注埃塞俄比亚艺术家的代表性意图的方法的时候了。通过查看中世纪埃塞俄比亚手稿中的插图，特别关注德国和英国收藏中迄今被忽视的例子，该项目将通过一系列突破性的出版物和活动来改变我们对这种材料的理解，这些出版物和活动将重建埃塞俄比亚帝国充满活力的文化和宗教历史。通过对埃塞俄比亚手稿中文字与图像关系的分析，有助于我们进一步了解埃塞俄比亚插图画家和抄写员的活动和关注点。该项目还将考虑一些手稿，这些手稿揭示了埃塞俄比亚基督徒的生活和奉献活动，并阐明了埃塞俄比亚教会与埃及、叙利亚和亚美尼亚其他东方东正教教会之间的关系。通过广泛出版和传播这些材料-揭露和批评塑造该领域的建立并使其继续存在的欧洲中心主义理论方法-该项目将对中世纪插图手抄本进行研究，关注决定其制作的社会文化背景，确保埃塞俄比亚的艺术遗产得到应有的重视。

This project intends to shed new light on the art, history, and culture of the Ethiopian Empire during a period going from the rise of a new dynasty which claimed to descend from the biblical King Solomon in 1270 to its near collapse in 1527. The colourful hieratic images that decorate Ethiopic manuscripts produced during this time span - conventionally known as the early Solomonic period (1270-1527) - are unlike anything else produced in sub-Saharan Africa and embody the spiritual aspirations and cultural identity of the artists who made them.The Ethiopian Empire was the longest-lived empire in Africa after that of Ancient Egypt. However, while there have been thousands of publications on the arts of Ancient Egypt, the visual culture of Ethiopia continues to be marginalized and misinterpreted. Most survey books of medieval art and manuscript illumination overlook the evidence afforded by the tradition of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Likewise, many survey books of African art disassociate the heritage of Ethiopia from the rest of the continent. Ethiopian art thus remains unjustly at the periphery of academic discourse about African and medieval art, and at the fringes of debates about medievalism and orientalism, while the work of Ethiopian artists continues to be inappropriately looked at to identify a succession of foreign "influences" from non-African contexts rather than to understand the cultural, religious, and socio-political significance of their activities.It is high time for an approach that pays attention to the representational intentions of Ethiopian artists. By looking at the illustrations in medieval Ethiopic manuscripts, focusing especially on hitherto neglected examples in collections in Germany and the UK, this project will transform our understanding of this material through a range of ground-breaking publications and activities that will reconstruct the vibrant cultural and religious history of the Ethiopian Empire. An analysis of the interrelationship between text and image in Ethiopian manuscript will further our understanding of the activities andconcerns of Ethiopian illustrators and scribes. The project will also consider manuscripts that shed light on the life and devotional activities of Christian Ethiopians and that illuminate the relations between the Ethiopian Church and the other Oriental Orthodox Churches of Egypt, Syria, and Armenia. By publishing and disseminating this material widely - exposing and critiquing the Eurocentric theoretical approaches that shaped the founding of the field and inform it still - the project will produce research on medieval illuminated Ethiopic manuscripts that pays attention to the socio-cultural background which determined their production, ensuring that the artistic heritage of Ethiopia receives the consideration it deserves.