Nicolao Branceleon (c.1460 - after 1526) was a painter born in Venice, whose art left a clear influence in Ethiopia from the reign of Baeda Maryam onwards. During his lifetime in Ethiopia, he was commonly called "Marcoreos." Centuries: 14th century - 15th century - 16th century Decades: 1410s 1420s 1430s 1440s 1450s - 1460s - 1470s 1480s 1490s 1500s 1510s Years: 1460 1461 1462 1463 1464 1465 1466 1467 1468 1469 Events and Trends Sonni Ali, first Songhai king, conquers many of his African neighbors. ... Centuries: 15th century - 16th century - 17th century Decades: 1470s 1480s 1490s 1500s 1510s - 1520s - 1530s 1540s 1550s 1560s 1570s Years: 1520 1521 1522 1523 1524 1525 1526 1527 1528 1529 Events and Trends Fall of Tenochtitlán and conquest of Spanish. ... For the computer graphics program, see Corel Painter. ... Location within Italy Venice is known for its waterways and gondolas Venice (Italian Venezia), the city of canals, is the capital of the region of Veneto, population 271,663 (census estimate 2004-01-01). ... Baeda Maryam (He who is in the Hand of Mary) (1448 - 1478) was negus (1468 - 1478) of Ethiopia, and a member of the Solomonid dynasty. ...

Evidence of his life before arriving in Ethiopia has not been found, according to Paul B. Henze.¹ Francisco Alvarez, who met Branceleon when he accompanied the Portuguese ambassador on his mission to Lebna Dengel in the 1520s wrote, "[T]hey say he was a monk before he came to this country".² Francisco Alvarez (1465?-1541?) was a Portuguese missionary and explorer. ...

Branceleon arrived in Ethiopia between 1480 and 1482, according to an account of Francesco Suriano, who had visited the country, written in the latter year. When he arrived at the court of the Emperor (who was at the time encamped at Barar, which O.G.S. Crawford located to the southwest of modern Addis Ababa), Suriano found 14 Europeans residing at the court, among whom was "Master Nicolo Branchalion".³ Events Great standing on the Ugra river - Muscovy becomes independent from the Golden Horde. ... Events Portuguese fortify Fort Elmina on the Gold Coast Tizoc rules the Aztecs Diogo Cão, a Portuguese navigator, becomes the first European to sail up the Congo. ... average temperature and precipitations per month Addis Ababa (Amharic አዲስ አበባ, new flower) is the capital of Ethiopia. ...

By the time Alvarez met Branceleon, the painter was very wealthy and well known in Ethiopia -- although forbidden by the Emperor to ever leave the country.

His best known work was a painting of the Madonna and Child that decorated the church of Atronsa Maryam, which caused much controversy. Beckingham and Huntingford, in their notes to their translation of Alvarez's account, repeat the account from the Paris Chronicle that Branceleon's work Madonna is a medieval Italian term for a noble or otherwise important woman. ...

gave great offense to the Ethiopians because the Child was held in His Mother's left arm, the left being considered to be of lower status than the right. (But there are many Ethiopian pictures in which the Child is carried in the left arm, and it may be that in this case He was really shown in the right arm, which seen from the front might be described as the "left".)⁴

The painting, however, survived for several centuries until it was destroyed in 1704, along with the church, by an Oromo raid. Events Building of the Students Monument in Aiud, Romania. ... The Oromo are an African ethnic group (pejoratively termed Galla) found in Ethiopia and to a lesser extent Kenya. ...

In 1973, the traveller Diana Spencer discovered some examples of Branceleon's works at Wafa Yesus and at the nearby monastery of Getisamani in the Goncha Gorge, including a work by a previously unknown Ethiopian apprentice. Henze reports that he and Stanislaw Chojnacki verified that these works survived the Derg era. "Though much has been learned about Ethiopian religious art in recent decades, it is still a challenging field where important new discoveries are likely to be made."⁵ Lady Diana Spencer is a name shared by several members of the Spencer family, an aristocratic English family related to the Churchills of Blenheim Palace. ... The Derg was the ruling committee of Ethiopia from 1974 until 1987. ...

References

1. Paul B. Henze, Layers of Time, A History of Ethiopia (New York: Palgrave, 2000), p. 80.
2. Francisco Alvarez, The Prester John of the Indies translated by C.F. Beckingham and G.W.B. Huntingford (Cambridge: Hakluyt Society, 1961), p. 313
3. O.G.S. Crawford, Ethiopian Itineraries, circa 1400-1524 (Cambridge: Hakluyt Society, 1958, pp. 40-54.
4. Alvarez, Prester John, p.332 n.2
5. Henze, Layers of Time, p. 80.