Collection Online as of February 1, 2023
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)
Part of a set. See all set records
Iran, Shiraz, Timurid period
(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
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.