Album leaf, late 17th century, Unknown, 53 1/2 x 87 5/16 in. (135.89 x 221.77 cm) (outer frame), Pigments on vellum, Ethiopia, 17th century, Christian art has a long history in Ethiopia, where it developed its own characteristics after the new faith became the state religion in the 350s. These two seventeenth-century paintings on parchment are part of a larger ensemble of forty-four lavishly illuminated leaves featuring Ethiopian saints and scenes from the Hebrew scriptures and the Christian Bible. The illustrations are painted in the style known as the First Gondarene style, after the city of Gondar that served for several centuries as the countrys capital. The style places the figures, finely drawn and brightly colored (predominantly in red, orange, yellow, and some green), against an uncolored, neutral background. The figures are animated by their gestures and eye contact with one another. The two leaves selected here show the Arrest of Christ by four Roman soldiers in the Garden o