Baptism of the Chamberlain of Queen Candace of Ethiopia

Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich created this etching of the Baptism of the Chamberlain of Queen Candace of Ethiopia sometime in the 18th century. Dietrich was a court painter in Dresden, Germany, and was well known for his imitations of other artists. Here, a biblical scene is filtered through a northern European sensibility. The Ethiopian, likely a eunuch who is mentioned in the Bible's Book of Acts, is shown kneeling before a light-skinned baptist. We see the Chamberlain's armed escort, and a camel pulling what looks like an ornate carriage. The artist’s depiction of this scene has less to do with an accurate portrayal of non-Europeans, and more to do with how the artist and his contemporaries imagined them. To understand this work better, we can ask: what was the artist's access to information about Ethiopia? What were the established visual codes for depicting non-Europeans at the time? By asking these questions, we understand this artwork is less a window into the past, and more of a mirror.