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Medical Museum Home Art That Heals Home Introduction Overview of the Exhibit Medico-Religious Identities Knowledge and Secrecy The Cross Talismans and Scrolls Images and Asceticism Christianity, Possession and Talismanic Art Gaze Visual Trances and Sacrificial works. Additional Sites Project Art
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Medical Museum
Art That Heals: The Image as Medicine
in Ethiopia
The Rampart of the Cross
24. Processional cross. The cross is honored by its placement under a triumphal arch, following the antique fashion, and thus suggesting a prototype of great age. Cross, twelfth to thirteenth century, 34.92 x 15.87 cm. Collection: The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland, 54.2889 |
Two images, both very rich in the Ethiopian context, come together to define the status of the cross: first, the cross is the "seal" of Christ (and the Trinity) and therefore has always existed and always will; second, its wood having been sanctified by Christ's blood, it is a sacrificial being endowed with an infinite power of sanctification. This sacrificial status gives its eternity a triumphal quality. Medium of Christ's rebirth, it tends to act as His worldly double, still more than any place with which he is associated. In Ethiopia, as opposed to Western Christian churches, the cross is far more an image of triumph than one of death. And the Church, in signing every baptized person with the cross, makes them share in God's victory over death and over Satan. |
| Each church has one or several large processional crosses, which are used during sacramental activities, services, and processions. Westerners who have stayed in Ethiopia know the procession of the Epiphany: moving toward the brook where the ceremony will take place, the deacons walk first, wearing ceremonial clothes, crowned, and holding a cross; they are followed by priests wearing on their heads an altar tablet wrapped in cloth. No less celebrated is the procession around the bonfire on the feast of the finding of the True Cross. In the past, processions used to take place on Saturdays and Sundays, according to the testimony of the chaplain Alvarez, who was part of the first Portuguese diplomatic expedition to Ethiopia, in the early sixteenth century. |
25. Processional cross. The doubling of the lateral ends of this cross's arms is a development seen in a type of cross from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, characterized by rounded extremities. Cross, thirtheenth to fourteenth century (?), bronze, 33 x 17 cm. Collection: Richard J. Faletti Family, Clarendon |
26. Four-lobed processional cross, particularly finely executed. Serpents appear on the edges. Like all bronze crosses, this one was made by the lost-wax process. Cross, fifteenth century, bronze, 26.03 x 15.87 cm. Collection: The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland, 54.2894 |
27. The interlacing of this processional cross, in beaten and cut brass, reveals a Muslim influence. On the front, according to the inscriptions, "Mary" and her child between "Michael" and "Gabriel"; on the back, the "Ancient of Days" between "Peter" and "Paul." Cross, early sixteenth century, brass, 28 x 21.5 cm. Private collection. Photo courtesy of Guy Vivien |
28. Benediction cross with engraved motifs: above, the Trinity, with, at their feet, a dignitary armed with a curved sword, and accompanied by a soldier at either side; at the right, Mary and her child; at the left, Saint George, and below, a holy hermit and a soldier. Carving wood does not demand the sophisticated technique of working in bronze, and is practiced by monks, whose talents can be inventive, if sometimes crude. Cross, seventeenth century (?), wood, 57 x 30 cm. Collection: Robert and Nancy Nooter. Photo courtesy of Jerry L. Thompson |
Text courtesy of Mercier, Jacques. Art That Heals: the Image as Medicine in Ethiopia. New York: Prestel Books and The Museum For African Art, 1997.
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