GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The Dallas Museum of Art holds a substantial collection of crosses from Ethiopia. The crosses were carried in processions, used by priests to bestow blessings, or worn around the neck for protection and to assert identity. These objects have been in use since at least the 15th century, reflecting the long history of Christianity in Ethiopia. The DMA's collection includes 258 items: 178 hand-held crosses; eight processional crosses; five metal prayer-stick finials; and sixty-seven pendant crosses.
The DMA acquired the Ethiopian crosses in 1991 from Dr. Kenneth Redden and Dr. Hebe Redden. During the 1950s Dr. Kenneth Redden spent a period of several years in Ethiopia as part of a United States State Department legal team invited by Emperor Haile Selassie to help establish the country's first law school. Redden acquired the collection during his stay, although no records survive of where exactly he obtained each object.
At the time, there was no antiquities protection law in Ethiopia and thus Redden volunteered to draft such a law at the Emperor's request. According to Redden, when he presented the proposed legislation, Emperor Selassie observed that he had set the law to take effect one month after his departure from Ethiopia. Redden replied that he had done so because he hoped to take the crosses back to the US, causing the men to have a good laugh. The Emperor allowed him to take the crosses back with the understanding that he would eventually leave them to a public institution so that scholars and visitors could learn more about the culture of Ethiopia.
Several years later, in the spring of 1991, Redden and his wife, Hebe, decided to donate the entire collection to St. Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas. The President of St. Mary's, the Reverend Father John J. Moder, accepted the gift in writing, but he soon began to think that a broader public would be able to access the crosses if they were placed in a well-known museum. Thus, the Reddens and Father Moder began to seek a new home for the collection, and ultimately decided upon the DMA, due to the fact that it already possessed a large collection of African art. In 1992, the entire acquisition of 258 items was publicly exhibited at the DMA for the first time.
Adapted from
- Jacopo Gnisci, "Crosses from Ethiopia at the Dallas Museum of Art: An Overview," DMA unpublished material, 2016.
- Roslyn A. Walker, The Arts of Africa at the Dallas Museum of Art (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2009), 264-266.
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188990822: UMO
Processional crosses in use during Timkat (Epiphany) festival,Lalibela, Ethiopia, 1999.
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apply to objects where number startswith 1991.352
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General Description
The Dallas Museum of Art holds a substantial collection of crosses from Ethiopia. The crosses were carried in processions, used by priests to bestow blessings, or worn around the neck for protection and to assert identity. These objects have been in use since at least the 15th century, reflecting the long history of Christianity in Ethiopia. The DMA's collection includes 258 items: 178 hand-held crosses; eight processional crosses; five metal prayer-stick finials; and sixty-seven pendant crosses.
The DMA acquired the Ethiopian crosses in 1991 from Dr. Kenneth Redden and Dr. Hebe Redden. During the 1950s Dr. Kenneth Redden spent a period of several years in Ethiopia as part of a United States State Department legal team invited by Emperor Haile Selassie to help establish the country's first law school. Redden acquired the collection during his stay, although no records survive of where exactly he obtained each object.
At the time, there was no antiquities protection law in Ethiopia and thus Redden volunteered to draft such a law at the Emperor's request. According to Redden, when he presented the proposed legislation, Emperor Selassie observed that he had set the law to take effect one month after his departure from Ethiopia. Redden replied that he had done so because he hoped to take the crosses back to the US, causing the men to have a good laugh. The Emperor allowed him to take the crosses back with the understanding that he would eventually leave them to a public institution so that scholars and visitors could learn more about the culture of Ethiopia.
Several years later, in the spring of 1991, Redden and his wife, Hebe, decided to donate the entire collection to St. Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas. The President of St. Mary's, the Reverend Father John J. Moder, accepted the gift in writing, but he soon began to think that a broader public would be able to access the crosses if they were placed in a well-known museum. Thus, the Reddens and Father Moder began to seek a new home for the collection, and ultimately decided upon the DMA, due to the fact that it already possessed a large collection of African art. In 1992, the entire acquisition of 258 items was publicly exhibited at the DMA for the first time.
Adapted from
- Jacopo Gnisci, "Crosses from Ethiopia at the Dallas Museum of Art: An Overview," DMA unpublished material, 2016.
- Roslyn A. Walker, The Arts of Africa at the Dallas Museum of Art (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2009), 264-266.
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dma_insight-0053.xml.nores