Afrasiyab and Siyavu..brace palace closeup
Folio from Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp. Iran, Tabriz, Safavid period 1520-1540 Ink, opaque watercolor, gold and silver on paper 2002.50.13, cat 72
aperture=f2.8 focal length: 60.0 mm exposure 1/40 sec ISO: 2000
Afrasiyab and Siyavush Embrace palace Text
Folio from Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp. Iran, Tabriz, Safavid period 1520-1540 Ink, opaque watercolor, gold and silver on paper 2002.50.13, cat 72
aperture=f2.8 focal length: 60.0 mm exposure 1/40 sec ISO: 2000
Closeup of the Dying Dara
Folio from the Shahnama Iran, Shiraz, Safavid period, 1575-1590 Ink, opaque watercolor and gold on paper 2002.50.34, cat 99 For three years, Iskandar (Alexander the Great) has been battling the last Achaemenid ruler, Dara (Darius III, r. 336-330 BCE). While the Achaemenid forces are in retreat, Dara is stabbed by two of his ministers, who expect Iskandar to reward their treachery. In Firdawsi's narrative, Iskandar, who has just learned that he is Dara's half-brother, instead rushes to the scene of the attack and tenderly comforts his mortally wounded opponent. In this painting, Iskandar weeps into a blue hankerchief as he cradels the head of the dying Dara. Mournful and bewildered soldiers encircle the two kings. At the left, the two traitorous ministers, arms bound and heads shaved, await execution. Although Dara is the elder brother in Firdawsi's tale, it is Iskandar who is here depicted with a white beard.
aperture=f2.8 focal length: 60.0 mm exposure 1/40 sec ISO: 2000
Female Gazelle turned male closeup
Double page from the Shahnama Iran, Shiraz, Safavid period, dated to Ramadan 969 (May-June 1562) Ink, opaque watercolor, gold and silver on paper 2002.50.157, 2002.50.128, cat 89a-b The archetypical hunter-king, Sassanian ruler Bahram V (r. 420-438) was renowned for his spectacular hunting skills and, according to legend, won the Persian throne by slaying two lions with a mace. The surname "Gur" refers to his favored game animal, the onager or wild assm seen below him in this painting. Bahram Gur's bravura display of archery skills for the harpist Azada is one of the best known hunting exploits in Persian literature. This painting captures the essential narrative elements: responding to Azada's taunts Bahram Gur has feminized a male gazelle by shooting off its horns, has turned a female into a horned male gazelle with two arrows to the head, and with a single arrow has pinned a third gazelle's foot to its ear. Although unmentioned in the text, the falconers vingetted in beautiful detail on the horizon are among the finest features of the painting
aperture=f2.8 focal length: 60.0 mm exposure 1/40 sec ISO: 2000
Iskandar meets the A..ds the water of life
Folio from the Shahnama Iran, Shiraz, Safavid period, 1575-1590 Ink, opaque watercolor, gold and silver on paper 2002.50.36, cat 100 While exploring the Land of Darkness, Iskandar engages a local mystic, Khizr, to lead him to the Water of Life. But Iskandar and his troops take a wrong turn, become separated from Khizr, and must continue unguided through the gloom. On a mountain, Iskandar encounters the archangel Israfil, awaiting God's orders to sound the trumpet at the end of time. Israfil warns Iskandar to concern himself less with crown and throne, since he too will someday hear the trumpet call. Meanwhile, Khizr and a second mystic, Ilyas, discover the magical spring that Iskandar was seeking. An imposing Israfil, holding a seven-belled horn, dominates this dark and dramatic composition, dwarfing even Iskandar. Below them, Iskandar's soldiers struggle up the rocky, winding route. At bottom left, Khizr and Ilyas, their piety indicated by flaming haloes, courteously share the Water of Life that will grant them immortality.
aperture=f2.8 focal length: 60.0 mm exposure 1/50 sec ISO: 2000
Iskandar mourns the Dying Dara
Folio from the Shahnama Iran, Shiraz, Safavid period, 1575-1590 Ink, opaque watercolor and gold on paper 2002.50.34, cat 99 For three years, Iskandar (Alexander the Great) has been battling the last Achaemenid ruler, Dara (Darius III, r. 336-330 BCE). While the Achaemenid forces are in retreat, Dara is stabbed by two of his ministers, who expect Iskandar to reward their treachery. In Firdawsi's narrative, Iskandar, who has just learned that he is Dara's half-brother, instead rushes to the scene of the attack and tenderly comforts his mortally wounded opponent. In this painting, Iskandar weeps into a blue hankerchief as he cradels the head of the dying Dara. Mournful and bewildered soldiers encircle the two kings. At the left, the two traitorous ministers, arms bound and heads shaved, await execution. Although Dara is the elder brother in Firdawsi's tale, it is Iskandar who is here depicted with a white beard.
aperture=f2.8 focal length: 60.0 mm exposure 1/80 sec ISO: 2000
Recumbent Lioness
Iran, Safavid period, early to mid 16th C Ink, opaque watercolor and gold on paper 2002.50.6 cat 118 The recumbent lioness is the subjet of several drawings and paintings of the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. With slight variations, the feline is shown collared and tethered in a relaxed pose. Stippling, or short lines are typicaly used to convey contours and mass as well as coat texture. Here, fine lines and dots of reddish brown, black and white have been applied over the ivory-colored paper. Around the lionesse's muzzle, ear tips, belly and rump, white opaque watercolor has been introduced, contrasting with the lines and dots and suggesting depth. Eyes, color and chain are accented with gold. Now mounted on a sheet of modern paper, this drawing lacks a signature or attribution but can be linked through a sequence of closely related works to a prototype by the renowned Timurid artist Kamal al-Din Bihzad (d. 1535-36)
aperture=f2.8 focal length: 60.0 mm exposure 1/40 sec ISO: 2000
Solomon Enthroned
Folio from the Shahnama Iran, Shiraz, 1575-1590 Ink, opaque watercolor, gold and silver on paper 2002.50.37, cat 94 Seated on a golden throne and crowned with a flaming halo, King Solomon here presides over a retinue of humans, angels, divs and animals both natural and supernatural. Solomon is frequently mentioned in the Qur'an as a divinely appointed exemplar of just rule and wisdom, who commands the wind and understands the speech of birds and animals. Later Islamic literature, both secular and sacred, further elaborates his persona, giving him extraordinary knowledge, accomplishments and powers. This painting represents one of Solomon's key attributes: a canopy of birds who shield him and his entourage from the sun. This folio is the right half of what was once a double-page frontispiece depicting Solomon and Bilqis, the Queen of Sheba. The two pages opened an ambitious copy of the Shahnama by Firdawsi.
aperture=f2.8 focal length: 60.0 mm exposure 1/60 sec ISO: 2000
The Constellation Ca..a as Seen on a Globe
Folio from a manuscript of the Kitab suwar al-kawakib al-thabita by 'Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi Iran, late 15th-early 16th C Ink, gold and opaque watercolor on paper 2002.50.145, cat64 Gold disks scattered across this seated figure mark the major stars of the constellation Cassiopeia. Named "the enthroned one" (dhat al-kursi) in Arabic, this constellation of the Northern Hemisphere was pictured in antiquity as the beautiful, but tragically vain Queen Cassiopeia of Greek mythology. This painting was part of a now-dispersed manuscript of al-Sufi's Kitab suwar al-kawakib al-thabita (Book of the Fixed Stars), a tenth-century astronomical manual that expanded and updated Ptolemy's Almagest, integrating it with the rich star lore and nomenclature of the pre-Islamic Arabic tradition. For each of the forty-eight constellations, al-Sufi provided a description, a star chart and two images, the first as seen on a celestial globe and the second as it appeared in the heavens.
aperture=f3.2 focal length: 60.0 mm exposure 1/100 sec ISO: 2000
Wall of Shirazi leaves
2 folios and 2 bifolia from a late 16th C manuscript of the Shahnama
aperture=f2.8 focal length: 60.0 mm exposure 1/100 sec ISO: 2000