Collection Online as of March 25, 2023

Royal Reception in a Landscape, right folio from the double frontispiece of a Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Firdausi (Persian, about 940–1019 or 1025) (verso)

1444

Part of a set. See all set records

Iran, Shiraz, Timurid period

(1370-1501)

Opaque watercolor, gold, and silver on paper

Image: 26.3 x 20.7 cm (10 3/8 x 8 1/8 in.); Overall: 32.5 x 22.1 cm (12 13/16 x 8 11/16 in.)

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1945.169.b

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

A musician plays a harp that has been mounted over a stream, painted with now tarnished silver paint.

Description

The painting on the verso of this folio is the first half of a double-page frontispiece now detached from a Shah-nama manuscript (see CMA 1956.10 for the second half of the frontispiece). The scene does not illustrate a narrative from the Shah-nama, but is likely a representation of 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.

Provenance

by 1914

Philipp Walter Schulz [1864-1920], Leipzig, Germany

before 1935-1945

(Mrs. Kirkor [Antoinette P. Clark] Minassian [1874-1961], New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

1945-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Shepherd, Dorothy G. “A Shāhnāmah Frontispiece.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art (December 1956) vol. 43, no. 10, 1956, pp. 213–217. Mentioned: pp. 213-217; Reproduced: p. 217 www.jstor.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 722 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 222 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 222 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 279 archive.org

Neils, Jenifer. “The Twain Shall Meet.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 72, no. 6, 1985, pp. 326–359. Mentioned and Reproduced: no. 45, p. 350 www.jstor.org

Gharipour, Mohammad. Persian Gardens and Pavilions, Reflections in History, Poetry and the Arts. London: I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd., 2013. Mentioned and Reproduced: fig. 85, p. 95

Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 228-229

Mackie, Louise W. Symbols of Power: Luxury Textiles from Islamic Lands, 7th-21st Century. Cleveland, OH; New Haven, CT: The Cleveland Museum of Art; Yale University Press, 2015. Reproduced: p.132; Mentioned: p 133

Soucek, Priscilla. " Looking East, Looking West: The Artistic Connections of Ming China and Timurid Iran." In Ming China: Courts and Contacts, 1400-1450. Craig Clunas, Jessica Harrison-Hall, and Yu Ping Luk., eds., p. 233. London: The British Museum, 2016. Reproduced: p. 233, pl. 26.8a-b

Exhibition history

Exhibition of Muhammedan Art [Die Ausstellung Von Meisterwerken der Muhammadanischen Kunst in Munchen]. Munich, Germany (1910).

Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (1935). [lent by Minassian] (both folios?)

Exhibition of Islamic Art. De Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, CA (February 24-March 22, 1937).

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

Exhibition of Islamic Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1944).

Mostra d'Arte Iranica [Exhibition of Iranian art]. Instituto Italiano Per Il Medio Ed Estremo Oriente, Rome (June-August 1956).

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

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

Juxtapositions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (September 11-October 10, 1965).

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

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

Order and Rhythm: Carpets from the Islamic World. Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (September 10-November 7, 1993).

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

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

Arts of Iran (Islamic art rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 30, 2018-October 28, 2019).