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

This object has related works. See

Iran, Shiraz, Timurid period

(1370-1501)

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Medium

opaque watercolor, ink, gold and silver on paper

Measurements

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.)

Credit Line

John L. Severance Fund 1956.10

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Location

Not on view

Did You Know?

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 Shahnama manuscript (see CMA 1945.169 for the first half of the frontispiece). The scene does not illustrate a narrative from the Shahnama, 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.