The Cleveland Museum of Art

• Provenance
  c. 1910–?

  (Georges Demotte [1877–1923], New York, NY)

  ? by 1931–? by 1933

  Mr. E. Wells, New York

  ? by 1933–1943

  Grace Rainey Rogers [1867–1943], New York, NY, consigned to Parke-Bernet for sale

  November 18–20, 1943

  (Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, NY, November 18–20, 1943 sale)

  1943

  (Heeramaneck Galleries, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

  1943–

  The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

  Provenance Footnotes

  1 Listed as lent by Mr. E. Wells, New York, cat. no. 433 in Watson, Arnold Talbot. Catalogue of the International Exhibition of Persian Art; Patrons: His Majesty the King, His Majesty Rizā Shāh Pahlavi. 7th January to 28th February, 1931, Royal Academy of Arts, London. 1st ed. London: Office of the Exhibition [Printed by Gee & Co.], 1931.

  2 Listed as lent by Mrs. Rainey Rogers, fig. 11, in Dimand, Maurice Sven. A Guide to an Exhibition of Islamic Miniature Painting and Book Illumination. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1933.Listed as collection of Mrs. Rainey Rogers, no. 49, p. 110, in Brian, Doris. “A Reconstruction of the Miniature Cycle in the Demotte ‘Shah Namah.’” Ars Islamica 6, no. 2 (1939): 97–112.
• Citations
  Watson, Arnold Talbot. Catalogue of the International Exhibition of Persian Art; Patrons: His Majesty the King, His Majesty Rizā Shāh Pahlavi. 7th January to 28th February, 1931, Royal Academy of Arts, London. 1st ed. London: Office of the Exhibition [Printed by Gee & Co.], 1931. no. 433

  Erdman, Kurt. "La Mostra d'arte Persiana a Londra." Dedalo XI (April 1931). Reproduced: p. 826, fig. 822

  Binyon, Laurence, Basil Gray, and J. V. S. Wilkinson. Persian Miniature Painting. Including a Critical and Descriptive Catalogue of the Miniatures Exhibited at Burlington House, January-March, 1931. London: Oxford University Press, 1933. Reproduced: no. 29f, pl. XXIVA

  Dimand, Maurice Sven. A Guide to an Exhibition of Islamic Miniature Painting and Book Illumination. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1933. fig. 11

  Lorey, E. de. "L'Ecole de Tabriz." Revue des Arts Asiatiques I (1935). Reproduced: pl. XIVa

  Kuhnel, E. "History of Miniature Painting and Drawing." In A Survey of Persian Art from Prehistoric Times to the Present. Editors Arthur Upham Pope, Phyllis Ackerman, and Theodore Bestermann. London: Oxford University Press, 1938–39. Mentioned: vol. III, pp. 1835–1836; Reproduced: vol. V, pl. 839

  Schroeder, Eric. “Ahmed Musa and Shams Al-Dīn: A Review of Fourteenth Century Painting.” Ars Islamica 6, no. 2 (1939): 113–142. Mentioned: pp. 132–133 www.jstor.org

  Brian, Doris. “A Reconstruction of the Miniature Cycle in the Demotte ‘Shah Namah.’” Ars Islamica 6, no. 2 (1939): 97–112. Mentioned: p. 110, no. 49 www.jstor.org

  Ackerman, Phyllis. Guide to the Exhibition of Persian Art : ... New York, 1940. New York: The Iranian Institute, 1940. p. 246

  Parke-Bernet Galleries. French XVIII Century Furniture, Paintings, Drawings, Etc., Collection of Grace Rainey Rogers 1943/11/18-20. NY: [Parke-Bernet galleries, Inc., auctioneers], 1943. Mentioned and Reproduced: no. 418, pp. 140–141 archive.org

  Hollis, Howard. "Bahrām Gūr Slays a Dragon." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 32, no. 6 (June 1945): 85–86. Mentioned: p. 85; Reproduced: p. 89 www.jstor.org

  Shepherd, Dorothy. "A Persian Velvet of the Shāh Ṭahmāsp Period." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 36, no. 4 (April 1949): 46-49, 53. Mentioned: p. 46 www.jstor.org

  Dimand, M.S [Maurice Sven]. "An Exhibition of Islamic and Indian Paintings." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art XIV, no. 4 (Dec. 1955): 85–102. Mentioned: p. 86; Reproduced: p. 88 doi.org

  Istituto italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente (Roma). Mostra D'arte Iranica: Catalogo, Palazzo Brancaccio, Roma, Giugno-Agosto 1956 [= Exhibition of Iranian Art: Catalogue, Palazzo Brancaccio, Roma, June-August 1956]. Milano: Silvana editoriale d'arte, 1956. Mentioned and Reproduced: no. 497, pl. LXXIX

  The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 720 archive.org

  Persian Art Before And After the Mongol Conquest.: [Exhibition] April 9-May 17, 1959. the University of Michigan, Museum of Art, Ann Arbor. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan, Museum of Art, 1959. Mentioned: cat. no. 148, p. 43

  Grabar, Oleg. Persian Art Before and After the Mongol Conquest [Exhibition] April 9-May 17, 1959, the University of Michigan, Museum of Art, Ann Arbor. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Museum of Art, 1959.

  Sept mille ans d'art en Iran: [exposition], Petit Palais, octobre 1961-janvier 1962. Paris: Petit Palais, 1962. no. 1071, p. 192

  The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 221 archive.org

  Grube, Ernst J. The Classical Style in Islamic Painting: The Early School of Herat and Its Impact on Islamic Painting of the Later 15th, the 16th and 17th Centuries: Some Examples in American Collections. Germany: Edizioni Oriens, 1968. Mentioned and Reproduced: no. 11, p. 185

  The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 221 archive.org

  Welch, Stuart Cary. A King’s Book of Kings: The Shah-Nameh of Shah Tahmasp. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1972. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 39–41, fig. 4

  Hillenbrand, Robert. Imperial Images of Persian Painting: A Scottish Arts Council Exhibition. Edinburgh: Scottish Arts Council Gallery, 1977. no. 193e

  The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 278 archive.org

  Rosenzweig, Daphne Lange. "Stalking the Persian Dragon: Chinese Prototypes for Miniature Representations." Kunst des Orients XII 1/2 (1978–1979), pp. 151–176. Reproduced: fig. 9

  Grabar, Oleg, and Sheila Blair. Epic Images and Contemporary History: The Illustrations of the Great Mongol Shahnama. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1980. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 154–155

  Dickson, Martin Bernard, and Stuart Cary Welch. The Houghton Shahnameh. Cambridge, MA: Published for the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, by Harvard University Press, 1981. Mentioned: pp. 20–22; Reproduced: p. 20, fig. 13

  Williams, Marjorie. "Dragons, Porcelains and Demons: Cultural Exchange Between China and Persia." Orientations vol. 18 no. 8 (August 1986). p. 86

  Ferrier, R. W, editor. The Arts of Persia. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989. Reproduced: fig. 8

  Lentz, Thomas W., Glenn D. Lowry, and Gerlach Collection. Timur and the Princely Vision: Persian Art and Culture in the Fifteenth Century. Los Angeles, Washington, DC: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 53, fig. 18

  Komaroff, Linda, and Stefano Carboni, eds. The Legacy of Genghis Khan: Courtly Art and Culture in Western Asia, 1256-1353. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art; New Haven: Yale University Press [distributor], 2002. Reproduced: cat no. 56, p. 257, fig. 187, p. 160

  Curatola, Giovanni, and Gianroberto Scarcia. Iran: l'arte persiana. Milano: Jaca Book, 2004. Reproduced: fig.162, pp. 198–199

  Curatola, Giovanni, and Gianroberto Scarcia. Iran: l'arte persiana. Milano: Jaca Book, 2004. pp. 198–199

  Hagedorn, Annette, and Norbert Wolf. Islamic Art. Hong Kong: Taschen, 2009. Reproduced: fig. 16, p. 18

  Hillenbrand, Robert. "Color in the Great Mongol Shahnama." In Manuscripts in the Making: Art & Science. Stella Panayotova and Paola Ricciardi. London; Turnhout: Harvey Miller, 2017. Reproduced: p. 217; ill. 3

  Coffey, Heather. "Collapsing Geography and Orientalizing Pigment in a Fourteenth-Century Chromoshpere: Italian Painting and Ilkhanid Ceramics." In The Seas and the Mobility of Islamic Art. Radha Dalal, Sean E. Roberts, and Jochen A. Sokoly eds., 38–53. Biennial Hamad bin Khalifa Symposium on Islamic Art and Culture, 2021. New Haven: Yale University Press; [Ar-Rayyan, Qatar]: in association with Qatar Foundation; [Richmond, Virginia]: Virginia Commonwealth University; [Education City, Doha, Qatar]: and Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar, 2021. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 47, fig. 2.5

  Hillenbrand, Robert. The Great Mongol Shahnama. London, Washington, DC, New Haven, CT: Hali Publications Ltd.; Freer Gallery of Art: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art; Published in association with Yale University Press, 2022. Mentioned and Reproduced: painting 49
• Exhibition History
  Islamic Gallery Rotation (gallery 116). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (October 30, 2018–January 4, 2019).

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

  The Legacy of Genghis Khan: Courtly Art and Culture in Western Asia 1256-1353. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (October 28, 2002-February 16, 2003); Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (April 13-July 27, 2003).

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

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

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

  The Classical Style in Islamic Painting. The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (organizer) (November 1, 1968-January 4, 1969).

  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).

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

  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).

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

  Persian Art Before and After the Mongol Conquest. University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI (organizer) (April 9-May 17, 1959).

  Exhibition of Persian Art. Italian Institute for the Middle and Far East, Rome, Italy (organizer) (May 31-September 30, 1956).

  Exhibition of Persian Art. Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, Rome, Italy (May-October 1956).

  Islamic and Indian Miniature Paintings and Manuscripts. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (December 19, 1955-February 19, 1956).

  The World of Miniature Painting. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 20-November 10, 1953).

  Persian Decorative Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 15-March 16, 1952).

  Islamic Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 3, 1944-February 2, 1945).

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

  Islamic Miniature Painting and Book Illumination. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (October 9, 1933-January 7, 1934).

  International Exhibition of Persian Art. Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK (January 7-February 28, 1931).
• Cite this Page
  {{cite web|title=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|url=false|author=|year=1330–35|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}