Ethiopian Icon vs Persian Miniature

エチオピアのイコン / ペルシア細密画

Ethiopian Icon comes from Icon Painting and Persian Miniature from Indian Painting. Both are read here as style. They are reached for with different intent, which is the fastest way to tell them apart.

Ethiopian Icon

Ethiopian Icon — 聖母の三連画イコン — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainEthiopian Icon — 扇形の行列用イコン（ウォルターズ美術館） — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainEthiopian Icon — デブレ・シナ教会の聖母子画（ラリベラ, エチオピア） — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0

Large almond eyes, heavy outlines and vivid flat color give the sacred painting of Ethiopian Orthodoxy its own manner. The Byzantine inheritance is rewritten there in an African sense of form.

Persian Miniature

Persian Miniature — スルタン・ムハンマド『ゲイユマルスの宮廷』1520年代 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainPersian Miniature — ハーフィゼ・アブルー写本より ノアの方舟 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainPersian Miniature — ヘラート派『ゴレスターン』写本 1486 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Multiple viewpoints, jewel-like pigments and a composition unafraid of empty space paint poetry and history as complete worlds contained inside a book.

Ethiopian IconPersian Miniature
Era14th century–13th–17th century
FamilyIcon PaintingIndian Painting
KindStyleStyle
CuesLarge almond-shaped eyes / Bold outlines / Vivid flat color / Folding triptychsMulti-viewpoint space / Saturated mineral pigments / Ornamentalized nature / Script united with image
Best used forSacred narrative that must read through flat color and outline alone · Making a small folding altar that works as a paintingIllustration that shows several moments of a story in one sheet · Books and bindings where text setting and image share one design
TypeKeep inscriptions inside the frame and treat letters as part of the imageBuild the text panel into the picture, one ruled order for both
CompositionLine figures up frontally and divide the ground into flat color fieldsDepth by height instead of perspective, figures spilling past the border
MaterialDense pigment laid flat on panel or parchment, outlined in heavy blackHold mineral saturation, tighten planes with fine outlines and gold points
CautionExtracting the large eyes as a style breaks the balance of heavy outline and flat color, and the result becomes cartoon caricature.Converting the multiple viewpoints into single-point perspective collapses the space and destroys the picture's ability to narrate simultaneous events.

Put these two together

Icon Painting ／ Indian Painting

IndexStyle