Artwork Page for Bahram Gur Arrives at the House of a Merchant, text page (recto); Bahram Gur Slays a Dragon (verso), from a Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Firdausi (940–1019 or 1025), known as the Great Mongol Shahnama

Details / Information for Bahram Gur Arrives at the House of a Merchant, text page (recto); Bahram Gur Slays a Dragon (verso), from a Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Firdausi (940–1019 or 1025), known as the Great Mongol Shahnama

Bahram Gur Arrives at the House of a Merchant, text page (recto); Bahram Gur Slays a Dragon (verso), from a Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Firdausi (940–1019 or 1025), known as the Great Mongol Shahnama

1330–35

Iran, Tabriz, Ilkhanid period

(1256-1353)
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Medium
opaque watercolor, ink, and gold on paper
Measurements
Sheet: 45.8 x 34.4 cm (18 1/16 x 13 9/16 in.)
Credit Line
Grace Rainey Rogers Fund 1943.658
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
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Did You Know?

The Shahnama is an epic poem that traces the fortunes of heroes and kings, of lovers and enemies.

Description

In this intense painting, Bahram Gur plunges his sword into the breast of a dragon. A favorite character from Iran's pre-Islamic history, Bahram Gur (reigned 420–38 CE) was a popular ruler of the Sasanian dynasty and a great hunter. He took the name "Gur," meaning onager (a wild ass), because it was his preferred game, although he also excelled at killing dragons.

As evidenced by this illustration's rock formations, tree trunk, and dragon, Iranian painting in the Mongol period borrowed numerous stylistic and spatial elements from Chinese models. With the surging landscape and writhing dragon rendered with equal energy, this is a picture of extraordinary unity and concentration.
The front and back of a book page show six columns of Arabic text on each side, with the back interrupted by a colorful rectangular scene. The scene depicts a man with a light skin tone wearing blue robes under gold armor, stabbing his sword toward the spotted red belly of a gray serpentlike dragon to the left, whose tail wraps around a tree at the upper right, in a rocky landscape. His brown horse stands on the right.

Bahram Gur Arrives at the House of a Merchant, text page (recto); Bahram Gur Slays a Dragon (verso), from a Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Firdausi (940–1019 or 1025), known as the Great Mongol Shahnama

1330–35

Iran, Tabriz, Ilkhanid period (1256-1353)

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