The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

Vertically oriented page depicting people with light or medium-dark skin tones and two horses processing to our right in the lower half and two elephants, a few people and trees against a rocky landscape behind a gate in the upper half. Four columns of Arabic text run above and below the scene, making a rectangle that pushes up against the page's right edge with ornate, stylized, gold petal-like shapes surrounding the remaining sides.

King Luhrasp Ascends the Throne: a Processon Arrives at Court (recto); the Story of King Luhrasp (verso) from a Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Firdausi (940-1019 or 1025)

c. 1560–90

Iran, Shiraz, Safavid period

(1501-1722)
opaque watercolor, ink and gold on paper
Sheet: 47 x 29.7 cm (18 1/2 x 11 11/16 in.); Image: 43.9 x 26.6 cm (17 5/16 x 10 1/2 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1962.24
Location: Not on view

Description

This scene of a procession arriving at court was surely completed by the court scene itself. The subject of the frontispiece had nothing to do with the text that it accompanied, and the text has not been identified.
  • The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 223 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. 223 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. 281 archive.org
  • Arts of Iran (Islamic art rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (April 16-October 6, 2019).
    Persian Miniatures. The Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, IL (organizer) (April 9-May 9, 1963).
    Year in Review - 1962. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 24-November 25, 1962).
  • {{cite web|title=King Luhrasp Ascends the Throne: a Processon Arrives at Court (recto); the Story of King Luhrasp (verso) from a Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Firdausi (940-1019 or 1025)|url=false|author=|year=c. 1560–90|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1962.24