Fragmentary representation of a female figure with arms crossed in a gesture of respect and humility, wearing a crown and a veil, perhaps receiving the sacrament. The kings made of the artistic patronage a tool in the service of the Christian message but also of propaganda of their own politics. "In the fifteenth century, King Zärä Yaeqob (1434-1468), son of King Dawit, gave pictorial production a real formal framework, to serve religious worship as well as to reinforce royal ideology, giving rise to a new impetus in artistic creation," and gradually giving rise in the Christian kingdom of Ethiopia to a real cult of the image. The Ethiopians use only one term: Seel, meaning "image", to designate wall paintings, manuscript illuminations, portable panels or drawings. Just as the Greek word for icon, eikôn, has not found its translation in Ethiopian. See: Peintures sacrées d'Éthiopie - Collections de la Mission Dakar-Djibouti, Éd. Sépia, 2005. Ethiopia, 18th century Painting on canvas, re-mounted on canvas and mounted on stretcher, old pigments, visible lacks. H. 60 cm - L. 50 cm Provenance : Christiane and Antonin Besse collection since the 1950s, and passed on by descent.