Collection Online as of March 25, 2023

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

Iran, Shiraz, Timurid period

(1370-1501)

Opaque watercolor, ink, gold and silver on paper

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

John L. Severance Fund 1956.10

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

From the upper left two trained cheetahs, a falcon, and horses are led into the scene.

Description

The painting on the recto of this folio is the second half of a double-page frontispiece now detached from a Shah-nama manuscript (see CMA 1945.169 for the first half of the frontispiece). The scene does not illustrate a narrative from the Shah-nama, but likely represents the courtly audience for whose entertainment the manuscript was created. The date and style of the painting indicate that it was made during the reign of the Timurid dynasty in Shiraz, Iran.

Provenance

by 1914

Philipp Walter Schulz [1864-1920], Leipzig, Germany

?-1956

(Adrienne Minassian [1913-1994], New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

1956-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Allsen, Thomas T. The Royal Hunt in Eurasian History. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006. 80

Schulz, Philipp Walter. Die persisch-islamische Miniaturmalerei. Ein Beitrag zur Kunstgeschichte Irans. Leipzig: Hiersemann, 1914. Mentioned and Reproduced: vol.1, p. 87; vol II, pl. 36

Ackerman, Phyllis. Guide to the Exhibition of Persian Art. New York: Iranian Institute of America, 1940. p. 194

Robinson, B.W. “The Illustrated Persian Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library,” Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 34 (September 1952): 69–80. p.72n3

Robinson, B.W. “Origin and Date of Three Famous Shah-Nameh Illustrations,” Ars Orientalis I (1954): 105–112. p. 105

Stchoukine, Ivan. Les Peintures des Manuscrits Timurids. Paris: Institut Français d’Archéologie de Beyrouth, Bibliothéque archéologique et historique, 1954. pp. 44, 46, 60

Shepherd, D.G. “A Shahnamah Frontispiece,” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 43 (December 1956): pp. 213–215.

The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 722 archive.org

Gray, Basil. Persian Painting. Cleveland: Editions d’Art Albert Sikra and The World Publishing Company, 1961. pp. 96, 102–103

Ghirshman, Roman. Sept mille ans d'art en Iran: Petit Palais, Octobre 1961-Janvier 1962. Paris: Association francaise d’action artistique, 1961. no.1079, p. 193

Grube, Ernst J. and Alberta Maria Fabris. Muslim Miniature Paintings from the XIII to XIX Century from Collections in the United States and Canada. Venice: N. Pozza, 1962. Reproduced: no. 34, pp. 46–48

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 222 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 222 archive.org

Robinson, B.W. ed., Islamic Painting and the Arts of the Book. London: Faber and Faber Limited, 1976. pp. 153, 154

Hillenbrand, Robert. Imperial Images in Persian Painting. Edinburgh: Scottish Arts Council Gallery, 1977. p. 25, no. 107

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 279 archive.org

Neils, Jenifer. “The Twain Shall Meet.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 72, no. 6, 1985, pp. 326–359. Reproduced: no. 45, p. 350 www.jstor.org

Williams, Marjorie. “Dragons, Porcelains and Demons, Cultural Exchange between China and Persia,” Orientations 17 no. 8 (August 1986). Reproduced: p. 26, fig. 5

Blair, Sheila S. and Jonathan S. Bloom. The Art and Architecture of Islam 1250 – 1800. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994. p. 318, no. 24

Grabar, Oleg. “Toward an Aesthetic of Persian Painting,” in The Art of Interpreting: Papers in Art History from the Pennsylvania State University vol. IX, ed. Susan C. Scott, pp. 129–162. University Park: Pennsylvania State University, 1995. Reproduced: fig. 6-2

Sims, Eleanor, with Boris I. Marshak and Ernst J. Grube. Peerless Images: Persian Painting and its Sources. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2002. p. 115, fig. 32

de Selliers, Diane, editor. Orient: Mille ans de poesi et de peinture. Paris: Diane de Selliers, 2004. pp. 106, 107

Allsen, Thomas T. The Royal Hunt in Eurasian History. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006. Reproduced: p. 80, fig. 9

Mackie, Louise W. Symbols of Power: Luxury Textiles from Islamic Lands, 7th-21st Century. Cleveland; New Haven: Cleveland Museum of Art; Yale University Press, 2015. Reproduced: P. 132, fig. 4.3; Mentioned: P. 133

Harrison-Hall, Jessica. " Early Ming Ceramics: Rethinking the Status of Blue-and-White." In Ming China: Courts and Contacts, 1400-1450. Craig Clunas, Jessica Harrison-Hall, and Yu Ping Luk., eds., p. 80. London: The British Museum, 2016. Reproduced: p. 80 pl. 8.7

Exhibition history

Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (1935). [lent by Minassian] (both folios?)

Exhibition of Islamic Art. De Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, CA (February 24-March 22, 1937).

Exhibition of Persian Art. The Iranian Institute, New York, NY (1940).

Exhibition of Islamic Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1944).

7000 Ans d'art en Iran. Petit Palais, Paris (October-November 1961).

Muslim Miniature Paintings from American Collections. Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, Italy; Asia House, New York, NY (September 1962-February 1963).

Imperial Images in Persian Painting. The Scottish Arts Council Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland (August 13-September 11, 1977).

Order and Rhythm: Carpets from the Islamic World. Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (September 10-November 7, 1993).

Islamic art rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (December 16, 2013-December 15, 2014). (1956.10.a only)

The Exhibition of Persian Art: 7000 Years of Art in Iran. Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France (organizer) (October 19, 1961-January 31, 1962).

Muslim Miniature Paintings. Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, Italy, Venezia, Italy (organizer) (September 1-October 31, 1962); The Asia Society Museum, New York, NY (December 4, 1962-February 3, 1963).

Juxtapositions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (September 11-October 10, 1965).

Persian Miniature Manuscripts. The Scottish Arts Council Gallery, Edinburgh, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (organizer) (August 13-September 11, 1977).

The Twain Shall Meet. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 30, 1985-January 5, 1986).