Medical Museum
Art That Heals: The Image as Medicine
in Ethiopia
Gaze
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In a general way in Ethiopian society, the eye represents beauty; it is also powerful, even death-dealing. According to Gera and other clerics, in images it signifies light. It is written in the "Book of the Mystery of the Sky and the Earth," "The light of the body is the eye" (Gerbaut 1980:412). Or, again, the "Acts of Krestos-Samra" claims that when one of the thousand eyes on the wings of the cherubim opens, "It lights the entire world, like the sun" (Cerulli 1956:33/23). But this cannot fully account for the specific graphic design of the talismans.
The contrast between the scrolls' large eyes and the fine lines around them fixes the viewer's gaze on those eyes. This is not a simplification but a means of focusing the drawing's power: any gaze that engages the gaze in the picture is forced to submit to it. According to the most frequent explanations, and as the drawings show, the image's gaze radiates out in four directions, the scroll's recipient being at their center. When the design is figurative, the gaze remains tied to its bearer, angel or demon, but in the talisman it tends to free itself of any particular representation. There is a correspondence here between the scrolls' formal economy and the explanations of the clerics who speak of the "talisman's eye" or "face of man."
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31. Gog and Magog.The form vertically doubles a figure, then compresses the two central lobes made by that doubling into one, so that the single central lobe remaining contains four eyes in a row. Protective scroll (detail), early nineteenth century, parchment, 20 x 9 cm. Collection: Musee National des Arts d'Afrique et d'Oceanie, Paris. Gift of Jacques Mercier. Photo courtesy of Guy Vivien
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32. A lion, one of six in the overall image (40 x 22 cm.) The powerful formal treatment--similar curves for the eyes and ears, doubling of the contours of the ears and forehead, radiating lines--makes the eyes the focus of the composition. Protective scroll (detail), eighteenth or nineteenth century, parchment. Collection: Musee National des Arts d'Afrique et d'Oceanie, Paris. Gift of Jacques Mercier. Photo courtesy of Guy Vivien |
33. Seal of God. The eyes in the upper and lower bands symbolize the myriad angels who sing praises around God's throne. Protective scroll, eighteenth to nineteenth century, parchment, 19 x 13.5 cm. Collection: Musee National des Arts d'Afrique et d'Oceanie, Paris. Gift of Jacques Mercier. Photo courtesy of Guy Vivien | |
37.Satan kept prisoner by four angels. A chained Satan is shown in profile, as is cutomary in relgious iconography. The angels keep his prison shut with four crosses. Protective scroll, eighteenth century, parchment, 14.5 x 13.2 cm. Private collection. Photograph courtesy of Guy Vivien |
38.The patient for whom the scroll was made. Inscriptions and other elements indicate that images of a person haloed in this way have received various interpretations from the scroll patinters over the years: Daniel, Christ, Mary praying, and, most often, the patient, shown clothed in what the clerics call "garments of grace," which protect him. The latticework in the center represents embroidery on his clothing. Protective scroll (detail), nineteenth century, parchment, 19.5 x 10.3 cm. Private collection. Photograph courtesy of Guy Vivien |
Text courtesy of Mercier, Jacques. Art ThatHeals: the Image as Medicine in Ethiopia. New York: Prestel Booksand The Museum For African Art, 1997.
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