The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 25, 2024

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)

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
(1370-1501)
Opaque watercolor, ink, gold, and silver on paper
Overall: 32.7 x 22 cm (12 7/8 x 8 11/16 in.); Image: 26.1 x 20.7 cm (10 1/4 x 8 1/8 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1956.10.a
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

The painting on this folio is the first half of a double-page frontispiece now detached from a Shahnama (Book of Kings) manuscript. CMA 1956.10 is the left half of the frontispiece.

Description

The royal feast is set in a green landscape dotted with flowers and blossoming bushes against a gold sky with wisps of blue and white clouds. The group of figures in the upper left includes a falconer, horses, attendants, and two hunting cheetahs, while servers transport food and drink in gold and ceramic vessels, some presumably Chinese blue and white porcelain. Possibly this banquet was offered after a courtly hunt, a prestigious symbol of power and wealth. Among the groups of men sitting on elaborate carpets are three Chinese officials, identifiable by their black hats, kneeling together on the ground. Although their presence indicates the presence of foreign cultures within the Timurid court, the painting also reveals that not all are welcome to the feast; in the bottom half of the page a guard wields a stick to drive a group of men out of the garden.
  • by 1914
    Philipp Walter Schulz [1864-1920], Leipzig, Germany
    ?-1956
    (Adrienne Minassian [1913-1994], New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1956-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • 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. Reproduced: no. 45, p. 350 www.jstor.org
  • Arts of Iran (Islamic art rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 30, 2018-October 28, 2019).
    Islamic art rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 16, 2013-December 15, 2014).
    Islamic art rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (December 16, 2013-December 15, 2014).
    Order and Rhythm: Carpets from the Islamic World. Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (September 10-November 7, 1993).
    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 Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland (August 13-September 11, 1977).
    Juxtapositions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (September 11-October 10, 1965).
    Muslim Miniature Paintings from American Collections. Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, Italy; Asia House, New York, NY (September 1962-February 1963).
    7000 Ans d'art en Iran. Petit Palais, Paris (October-November 1961).
    Exhibition of Islamic Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1944).
    Exhibition of Persian Art. The Iranian Institute, New York, NY (1940).
    Exhibition of Islamic Art. De Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, CA (February 24-March 22, 1937).
    Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (1935). [lent by Minassian] (both folios?)
  • {{cite web|title=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)|url=false|author=|year=1444|access-date=25 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1956.10.a