- Provenance
- Provenance research underway.
- Description
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Detached folio from a dispersed copy of the Shahnama (Book of kings) by Firdawsi; text: Persian in black nasta'liq script; recto: illustration and text, Battle between Kay Khusraw and Afrasiyab; verso: text, Letter of Kay Khusraw to Kavus and his victory, four columns, twenty-three lines; one of a group of seven folios.
Border: The text and the painting are set in gold and black rulings on cream-colored paper.
- Label
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This painting is from a now dispersed two-volume copy of the Shahnama (Book of Kings) commissioned by Karkia Mirza Ali (1478-1504), a local ruler of the province of Gilan in northwestern Iran. It illustrates an episode from the persistent feud between Kay Khusraw, the mythical Persian king, and Afrasiyab, the villainous ruler of Turan.
Originally, the manuscript contained 350 paintings, an extremely high rate of illustration, attesting to the importance of expressions of legitimacy even for short-lived, local dynasties, such as that of Karkia Mirza-Ali. The bold compositions, large puppetlike figures, and vibrant colors of many of the illustrations stand in sharp contrast to the more subtle and restrained style of painting prevalent in metropolitan courts in Iran at the end of the fifteenth century (for an example, see F1937.24).
- Published References
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- Islamic Arms and Armour in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat. New York. .
- Thomas W. Lentz. Pictures for the Islamic Book: Persian and Indian Painting in the Vever Collection. vol. 1, no. 4 New York, Fall 1988. pp. 22-23, fig. 7.
- Glenn D. Lowry, Milo Cleveland Beach, Elisabeth West FitzHugh, Susan Nemanzee, Janet Snyder. An Annotated and Illustrated Checklist of the Vever Collection. Washington and Seattle. cat. 107, p. 89, 93.
- Glenn D. Lowry, Susan Nemanzee. A Jeweler's Eye: Islamic Arts of the Book from the Vever Collection. Washington and Seattle. cat. 20, pp. 102-103.
- Collection Area(s)
- Arts of the Islamic World
- Web Resources
- Google Cultural Institute
- SI Usage Statement
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Usage Conditions Apply
There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.
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CC0 - Creative Commons (CC0 1.0)
This image is in the public domain (free of copyright restrictions). You can copy, modify, and distribute this work without contacting the Smithsonian. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.
Usage Conditions Apply
There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.
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International Image Interoperability Framework
FS-5966_09