The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 4, 2024

Rustam Takes Aim at Ashkabus, from a Shah-nama (Book of Kings)

Rustam Takes Aim at Ashkabus, from a Shah-nama (Book of Kings)

c. 1425–50
Gum tempera and ink on paper
Folio: 31.8 x 25.6 cm (12 1/2 x 10 1/16 in.); Painting: 13.7 x 20.5 cm (5 3/8 x 8 1/16 in.)
Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 2020.204
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

In the upside-down inscription in the top margin: The Heavens cried, “Excellent!” and the Moon said “Well Done!”

Description

The central warrior is Iran’s mythic hero Rustam, who approached an enemy army on foot, aiming to shoot the general off his mount. This page is from the oldest surviving illustrated Islamic manuscript made in India. The painting is by a local artist working for a Sultanate patron in India who admired Persian literature and emulated the erudite court culture of Iran.
  • by 1696–after 1718
    Muhammad Fazil
    ?–c. 1960
    Nizam of Hyderabad, sold to Isidore Kahane
    c. 1960–by 1987
    (Isidore Kahane [1921–2004], Zürich, Switzerland, sold to private collector)
    c. 1987–c. 2017
    Private Collection, Europe, sold to Francesca Galloway and Sam Fogg
    c. 2017–2020
    (Francesca Galloway and Sam Fogg, London, UK, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    2020–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Goswamy, B. N. A Jainesque Sultanate Shahnama and the Context of Pre-Mughal Painting in India. Zürich, Swizerland: Museum Rietberg, 1988.
    Welch, Stuart Cary. “Encounters with India: Land of Gold, Spices, and Matters Spiritual.” In Circa 1492: Art in the Age of Exploration, edited by Jay A. Levenson, pp. 363-366. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1991.
    Mason, Darielle, and B. N. Goswamy. Intimate Worlds: Indian Paintings from the Alvin O. Bellak Collection. Philadelphia, PA: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2001. p. 42
    Goswamy, B. N. “The Master of the Jainesque Sultanate Shahnama.” In Masters of Indian Painting, edited by Milo C. Beach, Eberhard Fischer, and B.N. Goswamy, pp. 41–52. Zurich, Switzerland: Artibus Asiae Publishers, 2011.
  • Martial Art of India (Indian Painting rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 11-August 21, 2022).
  • {{cite web|title=Rustam Takes Aim at Ashkabus, from a Shah-nama (Book of Kings)|url=false|author=|year=c. 1425–50|access-date=04 May 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2020.204