Story of the Queen of Sheba

Afewerq Mengesha
b. 1944, Ethiopia
Mid-20th century
Paint on canvas
Gift of Joseph and Patricia Brumit, 2004-7-61

Through her example, she birthed a dynasty—and a legend.

According to the Kebra Nagast (The Glory of the Kings), a 14th-century recounting of the Ethiopian royal line, Queen Makeda, ruler of the realm, traveled to Jerusalem in the 10th century B.C.E. to witness the fabled wisdom of King Solomon. While there, she bore a son by Solomon.
As a young adult, her son Menelik returned to Jerusalem to meet his father. Upon coming home, Menelik founded Ethiopia’s Solomonic dynasty (through which descent was traced until Emperor Haile Selassie’s abdication in 1974) and is credited with bringing the Ark of the Covenant to Ethiopia.
Scenes from the Kebra Nagast—and, in particular, from the life of the Queen of Sheba—became one of the most important and widely reproduced sets of images as painters in mid-20th century Ethiopia began to adapt to new markets for their work. Afewerq Mengesha, who worked for the Ethiopian Tourist Trading Corporation, was one of the most inventive and distinctive artists working in this market. His distinctive style of figures with enlarged eyes and digits is immediately recognizable.

Photo by Brad Simpson, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution