The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 26, 2023

Preface (verso) from a double-page frontispiece of a Shahnama of Firdausi (940-1019 or 1025)

c. 1444

Part of a set. See all set records

Iran, Shiraz, Timurid period

(1370-1501)

Opaque watercolor, ink, and gold on paper

Overall: 32.7 x 22 cm (12 7/8 x 8 11/16 in.)

John L. Severance Fund 1956.10.b

Location

not on view

Description

This text page is the first page of a Shahnama manuscript with an illuminated heading containing the basmala ("In the name of Allah, etc.") followed by the text of the preface to the Shahnama.

Inscriptions
Inscription Remark

Effaced seals

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
The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned: cat. no. 722 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
Exhibition history

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

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1956.10.b