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

这个项目旨在为埃塞俄比亚帝国的艺术、历史和文化提供新的线索，从1270年声称从圣经所罗门王那里继承下来的新王朝的崛起到1527年几乎崩溃的时期。在这段时间--通常被称为早期所罗门时期(1270-1527)--制作的埃塞俄比亚手稿上装饰着五颜六色的象形文字，与撒哈拉以南非洲生产的任何其他作品都不同，体现了制作这些手稿的艺术家的精神愿望和文化认同。埃塞俄比亚帝国是非洲仅次于古埃及的最长寿的帝国。然而，尽管关于古埃及艺术的出版物数以千计，但埃塞俄比亚的视觉文化继续被边缘化和曲解。大多数中世纪艺术和手稿照明的调查书籍忽略了埃塞俄比亚东正教传统所提供的证据。同样，许多非洲艺术调查书籍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讨论的边缘，处于关于中世纪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，以确定来自非非洲背景的一系列外国“影响”，而不是理解他们活动的文化、宗教和社会政治意义。现在是时候采取一种关注埃塞俄比亚艺术家的表现意图的方法了。通过研究中世纪埃塞俄比亚手稿中的插图，特别是德国和英国收藏品中迄今被忽视的例子，该项目将通过一系列开创性的出版物和活动改变我们对这一材料的理解，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。分析埃塞俄比亚手稿中文字和图像之间的相互关系将进一步加深我们对埃塞俄比亚插画家和抄写员的活动和关切的理解。该项目还将考虑手稿，这些手稿揭示了埃塞俄比亚基督徒的生活和虔诚活动，并阐明了埃塞俄比亚教会与埃及、叙利亚和亚美尼亚的其他东正教之间的关系。通过广泛出版和传播这一材料--揭露和批评影响该领域建立的欧洲中心论方法，并使其仍然具有启发性--该项目将对中世纪启蒙的埃塞俄比亚手稿进行研究，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考虑。

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 and concerns 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.