• Additional view of object
  • Additional view of object
  • Additional view of object
  • Additional view of object
  • Additional view of object
Apr 28, 2017
Nov 23, 2009
Apr 28, 2017
Apr 28, 2017
Apr 28, 2017

Royal Reception in a Landscape, left folio from the double frontispiece of a Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Firdausi (Persian, about 940–1019 or 1025)

Royal Reception in a Landscape, left folio from the double frontispiece of a Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Firdausi (Persian, about 940–1019 or 1025)

1444

Part of a set. See all set records

This object has related works. See Shamsa (recto) from right folio from a double-page frontispiece of a Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Firdausi (940–1019 or 1025)

Iran, Shiraz, Timurid period

(1370-1501)

Opaque watercolor, ink, gold, and silver on paper

Overall: 32.7 x 22 cm (12 7/8 x 8 11/16 in.); Image: 26.1 x 20.7 cm (10 1/4 x 8 1/8 in.)

John L. Severance Fund 1956.10.a

Location

not on view

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Did you know?

The painting on this folio is the first half of a double-page frontispiece now detached from a Shahnama (Book of Kings) manuscript. CMA 1956.10 is the left half of the frontispiece.

Description

The royal feast is set in a green landscape dotted with flowers and blossoming bushes against a gold sky with wisps of blue and white clouds. The group of figures in the upper left includes a falconer, horses, attendants, and two hunting cheetahs, while servers transport food and drink in gold and ceramic vessels, some presumably Chinese blue and white porcelain. Possibly this banquet was offered after a courtly hunt, a prestigious symbol of power and wealth. Among the groups of men sitting on elaborate carpets are three Chinese officials, identifiable by their black hats, kneeling together on the ground. Although their presence indicates the presence of foreign cultures within the Timurid court, the painting also reveals that not all are welcome to the feast; in the bottom half of the page a guard wields a stick to drive a group of men out of the garden.

See also
Collection: 
Islamic Art
Department: 
Islamic Art
Type of artwork: 
Manuscript
Medium: 
Opaque watercolor, ink, gold, and silver on paper
Credit line: 
John L. Severance Fund

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