When Sotheby’s sold a 17th-century portrait miniature last year, it was unable to identify its black sitter, cataloguing him only as “a North African, possibly an Abyssinian”. When Christie’s sold it some 20 years earlier, it too had been unable to put a name to a face. Now a British art expert has discovered that the sitter was a pretender to the Ethiopian throne.
Philip Mould, co-presenter of the BBC’s Fake or Fortune?, has proved that it depicts Zaga Christ, who died tragically young, having made his mark in the royal courts of France and Italy.
The oval portrait measures just 57mm high, but is an object of great historical importance, he said: “It is the earliest-known European portrait miniature to depict a black sitter. It represents a moment all too rare in the European history of the early modern period – one in which an African sitter is treated by an artist in exactly the same terms as a European. It’s a rediscovery, a revelation.”
It was painted in 1635 by Giovanna Garzoni, one of the most famous Italian female painters of the 17th century.
Zaga Christ emerged from the desert on a camel, travelling to France and Italy, where he was welcomed by Cardinal Richelieu and the Pope. Although some doubted his claim to be the son of the murdered Emperor Jacob of Ethiopia, one contemporary wrote: “When Zaga Christ appeared among other princes, the beauties of his mind and body were such that he eclipsed them all.”
He fell in love with a Franciscan nun, Caterina Massimi. Their letters, written in the 1630s in their own blood, were discovered after his death in France from pleurisy aged 28.
The identity of the miniature had been forgotten when it came up for auction, Mould said: “The writing on the reverse is how we cracked it. In a delightful deceit, in deference to her Ethiopian subject, the artist – a rare female artist of the period – wrote her name in Ethiopian.”
Last December, Sotheby’s had estimated that the miniature would fetch between £5,000 and £8,000. The auctioneer described it as a “remarkable” portrait, whose sitter’s identity is “currently unknown, however the richness of his clothes may indicate that he held a position at court”.
Mould sensed its potential, taking the bidding to around £55,000. Such is its museum-quality significance that it will be priced at £250,000 when it is exhibited for the first time with its new identity at the Masterpiece London art fair, which opens on 27 June.