Láminas 16-17

Números diez y seis y diez y siete, el día Domingo [pinta]do el sol en signo de Cabra en la región del medio día por em[pera]dores se obscurece el color como lo muestran las pinturas [en] la mano derecha. Influencia del sol y de la Estrella de Venus que lo acompaña al punto del medio día la justicia figurada por la Estatua del […]bron sin brazos1 solo invocando la divina misericordia para obras [just. Genl.] que significa la pintura [29] de un hombre moreno de la propia Región son misión al de este empleo El Emperador que sigue manifiesta el Preste Juan la Libert azul y estrellado por nombrarse de la Estirpe de David y el forro encarnado memoria de la Sangre que derramo nuestro Señor Jesu Christo: La piel blanca sobre los hombros pureza y el Toison por San Mateo Corona Imperial con el Espíritu Santo arriba indicando que bajaba cuando la Reina Candase daba el bautismo a los Príncipes en el Río Nilo conducida por Eleunuco su Tesorero a quien dio el apóstol San Felipe, la Concha con que Bautizaba otra Reina y el Libro que tiene en la mano es el de las Profecías de Isaías2 que iba leyendo Eleunuco en el Carro=
37

Abalseo primer Apóstol moreno ordenado por el propio San Felipe, está en traje de clérigo con otro libro abierto en la mano= Miguelet, hijo del Rey Salomón y de la Reina Saba, que enviado de su padre a la Reina Candase por travesura, le dio el mismo Salomón las Tablas de la Ley.=4

Abraham, otro Preste de las Indias,5 que no tienen mujer con quien casar de la misma Estirpe, reciben la misma orden [30] Sacerdotal por cuyo motivo se titulan Presbítero: y habiéndose ordenado el propio Abraham bajo un Angel trayéndole vinajeras y hostias. El Patriarca de Alejandría admirado de aquella maravilla subió al Monte amaro haciéndole a Dios la deprecación Cantate Domino Cartieum nobum. Debajo se haya la montaña que acaba de indicarse; un poco mas arriba los príncipes de Abisinia cerca de su casa y del templo del Espíritu Santo que así se llama aquel donde celebró el Preste Abraham el sacrificio en presencia de María Santísima. Y el Castillo que está a la derecha es de los Moros situados en aquel contorno sin haber podido pasar la Montaña y por tanto se mantienen en él.

Preguntado que bandera es la que lleva en la mano la Reina que ha nombrado Candase, dijo: Que es la de Abisinia Campo Amarillo León Cruz encarnada y Espada. Así, a la izquierda de los mismos números diez y seis y diez y siete, se advierte pintado un grande acompañado al monarca en que está representada la Europa: Un cardenal de su santidad que figura la Italia: Los tres Reyes Magos, Melchor [31] Gaspar y Baltasar6 guiados de la Estrella que se concedió al primero para que condujese a los otros a la adoración de Jesucristo recién nacido que esta mas [a la] izquierda en los brazos de su madre y por último el poniente que lo da a conocer el Sol en su Ocaso. En este estado, siendo ya cerca de las seis de la tarde y en consideración a que el reo está declarando desde las diez de la mañana sobre este y otros particulares dispuso el asesor se suspendiese la diligencia que firmo a reserva de continuarla cuando convenga doy fe.

Commentary

  1. Image 16-17, for example, was a typically inscrutable picture. In it appeared the black Prester John, the black queen Candace, the evangelist Phillip baptizing a figure known as the Ethiopian eunuch (thus initiating the African Catholic Church), King Solomon, the Queen of Sheba, their son, and a statue with no arms representing Justice. READ MORE

    Justice had no arms, Aponte explained, “so as not to receive anything.” Authorities could not have known what to make of the image, nor of Aponte’s seemingly convoluted description of it. They did not even bother to ask what it meant; it did not seem significant enough to them and certainly not as interesting as other images of black armies. (Ferrer 2014, 319)

  2. Yet the picture featured the Ethiopian eunuch seated in a carriage reading a book. READ MORE

    Aponte identified the book as the biblical prophesies of Isaiah. Aponte did not volunteer that Isaiah’s prophesies included four poems, later known as the Songs of the Servant, that were powerful meditations on justice for the downtrodden. The first poem reads in part: “Here is my servant, whom I uphold … I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his teaching the islands will put their hope.”[99[ Justice is invoked three times in close succession in the biblical passage. The idea of justice is thus represented not just in the figure of the statue, or in the black Prester John, as one critic has suggested, but also in the unspoken subject of the open book that Aponte chose to picture in his own.[100] Assuming that Aponte was aware of those verses, he might have identified readily with the figure of the servant bringing justice — and faith — to the islands. Yet this potential visual representation of a black struggle for justice and redemption appears to have gone undetected by Aponte’s inquisitioner. (Ferrer 2014, 319)

  3. Returning to the figure of Prester John, in his subsequent appearance [plate XVI–XVII] he is shown surrounded by symbols and standards of the Ethiopian sovereign (lions and crosses), “with the Holy Spirit above indicating that it came down when Queen Candase baptised the Princes in the Nile River carried by the eunuch her Treasurer to whom the apostle Saint Philip gave the Shell with which he baptised another Queen and the Book that she has in her hand is that of the Prophecies of Isaiah that the eunuch was reading in the carriage.”[79] READ MORE

    This episode of biblical Ethiopianism[80] was probably written in the 1st century A.D. (with the eunuch as the queen’s secretary/treasurer). However, there is a record of Queen Candace from the 5th century B.C., which led Pliny the Elder to establish, before the New Testament, that Candace was the generic name of the queens that governed Meroé (Ethiopia/Abyssinia). (Pavez Ojeda 2012, 290)

  4. In what follows, the plate incorporates several more characters from the Ethiopian theocratic gallery: Abalseo, “the first black Apostle ordained by Saint Philip himself,” “Miguelet [Menelik], son of King Solomon and Queen Sheba, who emissary of his father to Queen Candase as a prank, gave the same Salomon the Tablets of the Law,” “Abraham, other Prester of the Indies,” “the three Wise Men, Melchor Gaspar and Baltasar guided by the Star that was granted to the first so that he could take others to the adoration of Jesus Christ just born who is more [to the] left in the arms of his mother.”[81] (Pavez Ojeda 2012, 290)

  5. In what follows, the plate incorporates several more characters from the Ethiopian theocratic gallery: Abalseo, “the first black Apostle ordained by Saint Philip himself,” “Miguelet [Menelik], son of King Solomon and Queen Sheba, who emissary of his father to Queen Candase as a prank, gave the same Salomon the Tablets of the Law,” “Abraham, other Prester of the Indies,” “the three Wise Men, Melchor Gaspar and Baltasar guided by the Star that was granted to the first so that he could take others to the adoration of Jesus Christ just born who is more [to the] left in the arms of his mother.”[81] (Pavez Ojeda 2012, 290)

  6. In what follows, the plate incorporates several more characters from the Ethiopian theocratic gallery: Abalseo, “the first black Apostle ordained by Saint Philip himself,” “Miguelet [Menelik], son of King Solomon and Queen Sheba, who emissary of his father to Queen Candase as a prank, gave the same Salomon the Tablets of the Law,” “Abraham, other Prester of the Indies,” “the three Wise Men, Melchor Gaspar and Baltasar guided by the Star that was granted to the first so that he could take others to the adoration of Jesus Christ just born who is more [to the] left in the arms of his mother.”[81] (Pavez Ojeda 2012, 290)

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