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The Collector(s) / Donor(s) Suzanne Miers is a historian. She is an authority on slavery in Africa and has written many books and essays on the subject. In the course of studying this subject in Ethiopia she learned about a British diplomat, Francis Edwin (Frank) de Halpert, who served as "slavery advisor" to Emperor Haile Selassie I in the early 1930s. Mier's research led her to meet various members of de Halpert's family, including Frank de Halpert's nephew, Commander Michael de Halpert. She came to learn that Commander de Halpert had inherited fifteen paintings that his uncle had purchased or had been given during his sojourn in Ethiopia (ca. 1930). He was concerned that he had no way of properly caring for them, and in 1985 Miers, aware of their growing historical value, acquired the paintings. She had three of them framed for display, and put the remaining twelve in storage. However, in 1993, she presented the twelve paintings to the MSU Museum on indefinite loan so that they could be properly preserved and made accessible to scholars and teachers. Collector(s) / Donor(s) Statement The Object(s) This is a narrative painting relating the Ethiopian version of the story of the the Queen of Sheba. The tradition is extremely important in Ethiopia because it is tied to the founding of the Solomonic dynasty, whose last Emperor was Haile Selassie I, and to the arrival of the Ark of the Covenant in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian account identifies Sheba with the beautiful Queen Azeb, who traveled to Jerusalem where she was tricked into sleeping with King Solomon. She returned to Ethiopia carrying Solomon's child and gave birth to a son, Menelik I. As a young man Menelik returned to Jerusalem, confronted his father, stole the holy Ark from the Temple, and carried it back to Ethiopia. The Ark is said to reside in the treasury of the Church associated with the establishment of Christianity in Ethiopia (in the 4th century), Mary of Zion in Aksum (Tigray). This serial (cartoon-like) narrative has become, in the 20th century, the single most popular subject of Ethiopian secular painting. Further Information Books and Articles Cain Hope Felder. "Ancient Ethiopia and the Queen of Sheba." Troubling Biblical Waters: Race, Class, and Family, pp. 22-36. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1989. Richard Pankhurst. "Some Notes for a History of Ethiopian Secular Art." Ethiopia Observer 10 (1) 1966: 5-80. Csilla Perczel. "The Queen of Sheba Legend in Ethiopian Art." Art International 22 (5/6) 1978: 6-11 Lanfranco Ricci. Pittura Etiopica Tradizionale. Roma: Istituto Italo-Africano, 1989. Raymond Silverman and Girma Fisseha. "Jembere and His Son Marcos: Traditional Painting at the End of the Twentieth Century." Ethiopia: Traditions of Creativity, edited by R. Silverman, pp. 156-79, 267-71. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1999. Internet Resourcesnone
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