In a rocky landscape a hunter on horseback plunges his sword through the neck of a dragon that has sunk its fangs into a small deer. A pair of deer and two rabbits scatter in the foreground. With its blue tinted rocks and gold dragon's wings, this is a finished drawing, despite the narrative suggestion of its subject matter. Various heroes in the 'Shahnama', the Persian national epic, combat dragons, but this image evokes rather than illustrates these manly acts.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Hero and Dragon
Date:third quarter 16th century
Geography:Attributed to Iran, Qazvin
Medium:Ink, watercolor, and gold on paper
Dimensions:H. 8 11/16 in. (22 cm) W. 5 5/8 in. (14.3 cm)
Classification:Codices
Credit Line:Gift of George D. Pratt, 1925
Accession Number:25.83.7
Hero and Dragon
A hero attacking a mythical monster is a familiar theme in epic literature. However, in spite of the graphic depiction shown here — a dragon swallowing an antelope — specific identification remains illusive. The most likely reason is that, rather than an illustration for a manuscript, this highly finished drawing was conceived as a separate entity. It is an imagined and idealized version of a narrative that has been combined with the lively running animals found in hunting scenes.[1]
The steed, with its arched neck and dappled hide, carrying its rider, in every inch the princely hero, and the dragon, with the boldly calligraphic curve of its spine, are nevertheless frozen in time. In their gracefulness and charm the pairs of ibexes, foxes, and rabbits in the foreground belong to the world of the prince-hero and his steed, while the submerged menagerie in the rocks of the dragon's mountainous lair belongs to its demonic world in which the cloud, whipped by a witch-blown wind, has joined.
The iconography of the dragon emerging from a mountainous rocky landscape had already become standard in the fifteenth century.[2] A drawing of an archer attacking a dragon by Siyavush the Georgian, of about 1590, in the Louvre, is the closest parallel to this drawing, although slightly later.[3]
The light washes and touches of color (including the drops of blood on the dragon's fangs) add to the polished finish of the drawing, which functions as a viable alternative to a painting. It may have been produced on commission, perhaps for an album, or on speculation.
[Swietochowski and Babaie 1989]
Footnotes:
1. See the Hunting Scene, (MMA 45.174.16), seemingly by the same artist.
2. Hero and dragon scenes from one epic, the Shah-nameh, for example, often include Faridun in the shape of a dragon testing his sons, Esfandiyar in a conveyance slaying a dragon, Gushtasp slaying a dragon, Eskandar slaying a dragon accompanied by his army, and two episodes of Bahram Gur slaying a dragon. In none of these is the dragon described as swallowing an antelope or a gazelle.
3. See Welch, Anthony. Artists for the Shah: Late Sixteenth-Century Painting at the Imperial Court of Iran. New Haven and London, 1976, fig. 8.
George D. Pratt, New York (until 1925; gifted to MMA)
Palm Beach, FL. The Society of the Four Arts. "Loan to the Society of the Four Arts, Palm Beach, Fl," February 2, 1962–February 27, 1962, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Persian Drawings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 13–December 31, 1989, no. 9.
Swietochowski, Marie, and Sussan Babaie. Persian Drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1989. no. 9, pp. 28–29, ill. pl. 9 (b/w).
Yarshater, Ehsan, ed. Encyclopaedia Iranica vol. 7 (1996). p. 543, ill. pl. XL (b/w).
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