African Christian art is a rich tapestry woven from diverse cultural influences and deep spiritual expression. This article explores the history of African Christian art, from ancient Nubian traditions to contemporary forms, highlighting the unique ways in which African artists have represented their faith.
Ancient Roots: Nubian Christian Art
The region of ancient Nubia, located in what is now northern Sudan, was home to some of Africa's oldest art traditions. After the fall of Kush, the kingdom of Makuria dominated medieval Nubia and developed its own art traditions.
Makuria's artists created one of Africa's largest corpus of wall paintings depicting Africans from across the kingdom's social hierarchy. This unique collection of African self-representation provides us with an internal perspective of how Africans perceived their own society. From the paintings of royals and clergy to common subjects, the wall paintings of Makuria are a portrait of a medieval African society as drawn by an African.
Beginning in the 8th century, the kingdom of Makuria developed a dynamic art tradition in the form of vibrant murals which adorned the walls of ecclesiastical buildings. The number of paintings varied according to the size and the religious and political importance of the buildings, and many of the painted scenes located in specific places in the churches and monasteries bear witness to the existence of a basic iconographic program followed by Nubian artists.
Nubian artists relied in part on iconographic models from the eastern Mediterranean world. These basic models which were widely used throughout the Christian world, were adopted in Nubia during the mid-1st millennium and subsequently modified in the development of local art styles. Arguably the most influential iconographic models during the early centuries of the development of Nubian Christian art came from the Byzantine empire, with which the region was in close contact.
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Recent archeological research indicates that the initial adoption of Christianity by the royal courts of Nubia (Noubadia, Makuria and Alwa) was a protracted process involving the gradual integration of the region into the Mediterranean world. On the other hand, external accounts explain that Nubia’s Christianization was the result of a competition between the orthodox Byzantine Emperor Justinian and his miaphysite wife Theodora.
Around the 7th century, the northern kingdoms of Noubadia and Makuria united both their governments and their churches, with Makuria becoming miaphysite. Beginning in the 8th century, the spread of Christianity across Makuria is a result of the Nubian church, its priests and the royals.
The Makurian church became more “naturalized” beginning in the 10th century and by the 11th century, a marriage alliance between the royal families of Makuria and Alwa resulted in the unification of the two states into the kingdom of Dotawo. These changes are also reflected in the wall paintings of the churches across the region of Makuria, with the innovation of new art styles, and the invention of new motifs and forms of self-representation.
Basics of Nubian Wall Painting
Paintings of royals figures are the most commonly attested among Nubian self-representations, followed by depictions of the church elite. However, many of the painted figures in Nubian art also included divine Christian figures such as the Trinity, angels and saints, and while many of these were initially based on Byzantine and Coptic models, they acquired a distinctly Nubian character based on the requirements of Nubian court ceremonies and their perception of the heavenly court.
But the initial use of Byzantine art styles may explain why saints continued to be depicted as “colorless” while the portraits of (living) Nubians and(non-Nubian) biblical figures were depicted with a dark-brown complexion. For example, biblical figures such as the Magi (three wise men) and the shepherds from the nativity story, and other characters like Tobias are depicted as Nubians.
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Nubian art tended towards stylization and ornamentalism, in which images were essentially reduced to the attributes of the depicted archetype. As a result, facial features and parts of the body are relatively 'synthetic', being based on specific models used by the different groups of artists from the same workshops.
Detail of the 10th century nativity scene at Faras depicting the Magi on horseback
Representing Royals in Nubian Art
Among the most common paitings of royal figures in Nubian art were the ‘protection’ scenes, in which royals such as Kings, Queen Mothers, princes and princesses are depicted under the protection of holy figures. Although this type of representation had its precursors both in early Byzantine designs, it was greatly transformed in Nubia art where it became a particularly popular theme of murals from the ninth century up to the 14th century.
While portraying kings in the church interiors was relatively common in Byzantine art, representations of the ruler in the area of the sanctuary were extremely rare. On the other hand, the Nubian type of the official royal portrait in the apse of the Church represents a new innovation.
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These official representations mainly portray Nubian dignitaries under the protection of the Trinity, angels or saints, by depicting the latter standing behind or beside the royal, with their hands touching the shoulder of the royal. Such portraiture developed into an iconographic type that became popular in the wall decoration of Nubian Churches.
These protection scenes played an important role in the expression of royal ideology in the iconographic program of the churches. the Nubian ruler, who is depicted under the protection of the Archangel and/or the Apostles, becomes the main figure of the composition under heavenly protection.
The kings are also depicted wearing the symbols of royal power in Makuria. These include the horned crown often surmounted by a cross on top, a scepter surmounted by a cross or a figure of Christ, and they are shown wearing rich robes that signify their authority.
The royal portraits also display another aspect of Nubian self-representation with regards to the clothes worn by the people of Nubia and the Makurian royal fashion. The clothes worn by the 9th-10th century kings; Zacharias III and Georgios II are the most similar to Byzantine imperial attire. However, beginning in the 11th-12th century, there was a noticeable evolution of the royal attire in Nubian royal portraits.
Besides the portraits of the male royals were depictions of prominent women in the Makurian royal court such as Queen mothers and princesses. Like the depictions of kings, depictions of royal women in Nubian art are closely associated with the ecclesiastical paintings of Nubian female saints, the most prominent of whom was the Virgin Mary.
Depictions of Makurian women reveal more aspects of Nubian self-representation that reflect medieval Makuria’s social structure. Nubian women enjoyed a relatively high social and economic status, they owned churches as patrons, they commissioned wall paintings, and owned property. Nubian depictions of royal women thus constitute a unique official iconographical program.
14th century painting from Church NB.2.2 in Dongola depicting a Makurian king under the protection of Christ and two archangels, Michael and Raphael
Ethiopian Christian Art
Ethiopia is a country in Africa with ancient Christian roots. The introduction of Christian elements in art and the construction of churches in Ethiopia must have started shortly after the introduction of Christianity and continues to this day, since about half of the population are practicing Christians.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church claims that Christianity reached the country in the 1st century C.E. The term “Christian Ethiopian art” therefore refers to a body of material evidence produced over a long period of time. It is a broad definition of spaces and artworks with an Orthodox Christian character that encompasses churches and their decorations as well as illuminated manuscripts and a range of objects (crosses, chalices, patens, icons, etc.) which were used for the liturgy, for learning, or which simply expressed the religious beliefs of their owners.
Scholars still disagree on how to divide and classify the development of Christian Ethiopian art into chronological phases. The Christian Aksumite Period (c. This period takes its name from the city of Aksum, which had been the capital of Ethiopia for several centuries before the conversion to Christianity of King Ezana and served as capital for several centuries after.
A small number of Ethiopian churches, such as Debre Damo and Degum, can be tentatively ascribed to the Aksumite period. These two structures probably date to the 6th century or later. Still standing pre-6th century Aksumite churches have not been confidently identified. Aksumite churches adopted the basilica plan. These churches were constructed using well-established local building techniques, and their style reflects local traditions.
Although very little art survives from the Aksumite period, recent radiocarbon analyses of two illuminated Ethiopic manuscripts known as the Garima Gospels suggest that these were produced respectively between the 4th-6th and 5th-7th centuries.
The Arab expansion into Northern Africa cut off the kingdom’s access to the Red-Sea waterway (and to the markets which could be reached through it and on which a large part of the kingdom’s prosperity had been based). The political center of Ethiopia seems to have gradually shifted to the southern and eastern parts of the Tigray region in the Post-Aksumite period.
By the first half of the twelfth century, the center of power of the Christian Kingdom had shifted even further south, to the Lasta region (a historic district in north-central Ethiopia). From their capital Adeffa, members of the Zagwe dynasty (from whom this period takes its name), ruled over a realm which stretched from much of modern Eritrea to northern and central Ethiopia.
Lalibela includes twelve buildings destined for worship which, together with a network of linking corridors and chambers, are entirely carved or “hewn” out of living rock. The tradition of hewing churches out of rock, already attested in the previous periods, is here taken to a whole new level. The churches, several of which are free-standing, such as Bete Gyorgis (Church of St. George), have more elaborate and well-defined façades.
Furthermore, some, such as Bete Maryam, feature exquisite internal decorations, which are also carved out of the rock, as well as wall paintings. The interiors of the churches blend Aksumite elements with more recent elements of Copto-Arabic derivation. Several wooden altars survive from this period, some decorated with figures, together with numerous crosses, some of which are engraved.
By 1270, the last Zagwe ruler was overthrown by Yekunno Amlak, who claimed to descend from the kings of the Aksumite period and traced his lineage all the way back to the biblical union of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. The rock-cut church of Gannata Maryam, a few kilometers south-east of Lalibela, features an almost complete set of murals depicting saints, angels, and motifs inspired by the New Testament. The church also features a portrait of Yekunno Amlak.
Numerous illuminated manuscripts, particularly Gospel books, were created between the late thirteenth and early fifteenth centuries. By the turn of the fifteenth century, other manuscripts, especially Psalters, are frequently illustrated, and crosses are often embellished with depictions of saints and of the Virgin and Child. The earliest surviving Ethiopian icons also date from this century.
After a period of relative stability in the fifteenth century, a sequence of events shook the Ethiopian kingdom to its foundations, bringing it to the brink of collapse. First, came an invasion from the neighboring Muslim Sultanate of Adal led by a general called Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi whose army pillaged and destroyed numerous churches and Christian works of art across the country between 1529 and 1543.
The art produced during the mid-Solomonic period reflects the difficult situation the country was in. The practice of decorating manuscripts with pictures and geometric motifs declined considerably, and few crosses and churches have been confidently attributed to the sixteenth century.
The ascent to the throne of Fasilides in 1632 marks the beginning of a period of renewed stability for Ethiopia and the Solomonic dynasty. Fasilides ordered a new a capital, Gondar, about 50 kilometers north of Lake Tana (the largest lake in Ethiopia). He and his successors funded the construction of palaces and banquet halls within the royal compound that still exist today and they promoted the building of churches nearby and in the Lake Tana region.
Scholars usually divide the Gondarine period into two stylistic phases. A number of new themes, many of which were inspired from books printed in Europe, appear during the eighteenth century, and it becomes increasingly common to find depictions of donors and patrons.
During the second half of the nineteenth century, church painting continues to show indebtedness to the second Gondarine style, but contemporary figures and events are depicted next to religious subjects with an increasing frequency. Moreover, while patrons had occasionally been depicted from the Zagwe period onwards in an idealized manner, by the turn of the twentieth century, they are portrayed more realistically, as can be seen by the painting of Emperor Menelik II in the church of Entoto Raguel.
After the Second World War, traditionally trained Ethiopian painters, such as Qes Adamu Tesfaw, continued to work alongside artists influenced by modernism.
Exterior, Bete Maryam, Lalibela, Ethiopia
Interior, Bete Maryam, Lalibela, Ethiopia
Contemporary Expressions and Diverse Traditions
Like all human cultures, African folklore and religion is diverse and varied. Culture and spirituality share space and are deeply intertwined in most African cultures, which have been heavily influenced by the introduction of Christianity and Islam during the era of European colonization.
Most traditional African cultures include beliefs about the spirit world, which is widely represented through both traditional and modern art such as masks, statues, and sculptures. Wooden masks, which often take the form of animals, humans, or mythical creatures, are one of the most commonly found forms of traditional art in western Africa. These masks are often used to depict deities or represent the souls of the departed.
Statues and sculptures are also used to represent or connect to spiritual forces. For example, Bambara statuettes, such as the Chiwara, are used as spiritually charged objects during ritual. The wooden sculptures, which represent a highly stylized animal or human figure, are washed, re-oiled and offered sacrifices.
Today, the countries of Africa contain a wide variety of religious beliefs, and statistics on religious affiliation are difficult to come by. Christianity and Islam make up the largest religions in contemporary Africa, and some sources say that less than 15% still follow traditional African religions. Despite the drastic decrease in native African religions, some modern art in Africa has worked to reincorporate traditional spiritual beliefs.
Examples of Cultural Expressions
- Kalabari Kingdom: Veneration of ancestors plays a central role in Ijaw traditional religion, while water spirits figure prominently in the Ijaw pantheon.
- Dogon People: They are best known for their religious traditions, wooden sculpture, architecture, and funeral masquerades. Dogon sculptures are not made to be seen publicly and are commonly hidden from the public eye within the houses of families, sanctuaries, or the hogon (a spiritual leader of the Dogon people).
- Mendé People: The Mendé also produce beautifully woven fabrics, which are popular throughout western Africa, and gold and silver necklaces, bracelets, armlets, and earrings. Masks represent the collective mind of the Mendé community; viewed as one body, they are seen as the Spirit of the Mendé people. The features of a Sowei mask convey Mendé ideals of female morality and physical beauty.
Dogon sculpture Louvre 70-1999-9-2
