A Kingly Craft: Art and Leadership in Ethiopia

by Earnestine Jenkins

Overview

A Kingly Craft is a significant contribution to the interdisciplinary fields of African art history and visual studies. Ethiopian illuminated manuscripts have been regarded as remarkable expressions of Christian art and material culture. However, until recently, the elite art form of manuscript production has not been rigorously examined within specific social, cultural, and political contexts. This work is an innovative study of eighteenth and nineteenth century manuscript painting during a critical period of Ethiopian history known as the "Era of the Princes."

Focusing on manuscripts comissioned by members of an influential dynasty in the province of Shewa, the book draws attention to the relationship between art and patronage. Shewan leaders commissioned books with illustrations that were increasingly narrative and secular, visually documenting historical events, everyday life at court, and the portrayal of political concepts. This analysis also explores how local leaders in an independent African kingdom used art to establish links with a glorious past, thereby legitimizing their authority and preserving their great deeds for the future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761838890
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	02/08/2008
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	126
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.35(d)

About the Author

Earnestine Jenkins is Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Memphis. She has written on African and African Diaspora social and cultural history, gender, and visual studies.

Table of Contents

Part 1 List of Illustrations
Chapter 2 Introduction: The Political and Visual Culture in Eighteenth Century Shewa: Chiefs, Patronage, and Early Images of Authority
Chapter 3 Eighteenth Century Political Culture in Shewan Province: Chiefs, Wars, and Conquests
Chapter 4 Shewa's First Patron of the Arts: Amha Iyasus and His Miracles of Mary Manuscript
Chapter 5 Ruler and Saint: Asfa Wassan and Holy Man, Takla Haymanot: Secular Themes in Late Eighteenth Century Manuscript Painting
Part 6 The Ninteenth Century: King Sahle Selassie and the Court Art Tradition
Chapter 7 King Sahle Selassie and the Infrastructure of Patronage in Early Nineteenth Century Shewa
Chapter 8 Painting Authority: A Double Portrait, Shared Power: the 'Queen Mother' and the King
Chapter 9 Sahle Selassie Iconography, and the Ideal King: King David as a Model of Christian Leadership
Chapter 10 A 'Killer of Heathens' and a Leader of Men: Sahle Selassie the Christian Warrior King
Chapter 11 Duty and Leisure: King Sahle Selassie at Court
Chapter 12 On a Patriarchal Note: Painting History and Honoring the Father in Sahle Selassie's Prayer Book
Chapter 13 Coda: The Cultural Legacy of the 'House of Shewa'
Part 14 Bibliography
Part 15 Index

Editorial Reviews

This study is well-written, interesting, and epistemologically important. Jenkins' analyses and arguments are informed, interesting, sometimes provocative, and often fun to read.

Journal of Interdisciplinary History

Jenkin's analysis of the thirty images she utilizes is meticulous and thorough, and clearly demonstrates her argument that Shewa's rulers influenced the production of illuminated manuscripts, particularly with regard to the inclusion of secular imagery and unique aspects of their lives and courts…. A Kingly Craft will certainly be of interest to Ethiopianists, particularly those in the field of history or visual culture….Jenkins's in-depth analysis of individual images is excellent, and her argument regarding Shewan rulers' impact on the increasing use of secular imagery in Ethiopian painting is convincing and well supported.

African Arts Magazine

Jenkin's analysis of the thirty images she utilizes is meticulous and thorough, and clearly demonstrates her argument that Shewa's rulers influenced the production of illuminated manuscripts, particularly with regard to the inclusion of secular imagery and unique aspects of their lives and courts…. A Kingly Craft will certainly be of interest to Ethiopianists, particularly those in the field of history or visual culture….Jenkins's in-depth analysis of individual images is excellent, and her argument regarding Shewan rulers' impact on the increasing use of secular imagery in Ethiopian painting is convincing and well supported.

Spring 2010 African Arts Magazine

This study is well-written, interesting, and epistemologically important. Jenkins' analyses and arguments are informed, interesting, sometimes provocative, and often fun to read.

Summer 2009 Journal of Interdisciplinary History

This study is well-written, interesting, and epistemologically important. Jenkins' analyses and arguments are informed, interesting, sometimes provocative, and often fun to read.

Summer 2009 Journal Of Interdisciplinary History