Chilins (Chinese Chimerical Creatures) Fighting with a Dragon

Dragon and Chilin Fighting

Drawings composed of calligraphic lines, wash colors, and Chinese motifs make their first tentative appearance under the Mongol Ilkhanid dynasty of Iran in the early fourteenth century. Such drawings reached a high degree of technical merit and displayed a rich repertoire of subject matter under the Jalayirid sultans, in the latter part of the fourteenth century. Nurtured in Tabriz, the tradition appeared to grow fresh shoots in the Timurid and Safavid periods. Military excursions into Iran by the Ottomans in the sixteenth century resulted in an influx of Persian art and culture to Turkey, including a taste for chinoiserie calligraphic drawing. In this particular drawing, mythological winged beasts based on Chinese prototypes—some with lion heads and dragon claws, others with dragon heads and cloven hooves—attack a sinuously writhing dragon. The strongly marked dark line of the backbone, characteristic of this group of drawings, is here particularly fluid in its curves, and there is an overall delicacy in the handling of the brush and gracefulness in the counterplay of rhythms of this drawing that suggests an extrordinary sensitivity on the part of the artist.

Marie Lukens Swietochowski in [Berlin 1981]

Jack S. Rofe, Scotland (until 1929; his sale, Sotheby's, London, December 12, 1929, no. 1488); [ Hagop Kevorkian, New York, by 1953]; [ Kevorkian Foundation, New York, until 1955; sold to MMA]

Berlin. Museum für Islamische Kunst, Pergamonmuseum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. "The Arts of Islam. Masterpieces from the M.M.A.," June 15, 1981–August 8, 1981, no. 100.

Robinson, Basil William. The Kevorkian Collection: Islamic and Indian Illustrated Manuscripts, Miniature Paintings and Drawings. New York, 1953. no. CCXLII, p. 106.

"Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art New York." In The Arts of Islam. Berlin, 1981. no. 100, pp. 240–41, ill. p. 241 (b/w).

Grube, Ernst J. Studies in Islamic Painting. London: Pindar Press, 1995. p. 325, ill. fig. 20 (b/w).