Bahram Chubina, the commander-in-chief of the ungrateful king Hurmuzd, was led by magic to a hidden palace where a beautiful enthroned woman told him that the crown of Iran would be his. The interaction of the figures in this picture is characteristic of this manuscript, but their identity, except for those of the enthroned lady and her two guardians, are unclear. If she is talking to Bahram, the companion seated next to him is not identified in the text. The two figures on the left are similarly puzzling.
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Title:"Bahram Chubina Meets a Lady who Foretells his Fate", Folio from a Shahnama (Book of Kings)
Author:Abu'l Qasim Firdausi (Iranian, Paj ca. 940/41–1020 Tus)
Date:ca. 1330–40
Geography:Attributed to Iran, probably Isfahan
Medium:Ink, opaque watercolor, gold, and silver on paper
Dimensions:Page: H. 8 in. (20.3 cm) W. 5 1/4 in. (13.4 cm) Painting: H. 1 7/8 in. (4.8 cm) W. 4 5/16 in. (10.9 cm)
Classification:Codices
Credit Line:Bequest of Monroe C. Gutman, 1974
Accession Number:1974.290.41
Bahram Chubina Meets a Lady who Foretells His Fate
Bahram Chubina, the commander-in-chief of the ungrateful king, Hurmuzd, was out hunting when a magic onager appeared and led him through the forest to a magnificent hidden palace. Inside, crowned and enthroned, sat a beautiful lady who told Bahram Chubina that the crown and throne of Iran would be his.
In the miniature, the enthroned lady is placed at the right of the composition, her head tilted toward Bahram Chubina, who appears engrossed in her conversation. Behind the throne are the two traditionally depicted guardians. It is difficult to identify the other figures in the painting, particularly the one seated behind Bahram, since the lady has sent his companion, who came to inquire after his chief, to join the others outside. The figure at the far left, holding a mace, is probably a palace guard, but the identity of the crowned figure approaching him is a puzzle. If it is Bahram Chubina leaving the palace, then who is seated beside the throne? The ground is red and a curtain is pulled across the top of the composition.
This anecdote is very rarely illustrated,[1] whereas "Bahram Chubina Wears Woman’s Clothes Sent by Hurmuzd" is the subject of paintings in the First and Second Small Shahnamas, the 1330 Inju’id manuscript in Istanbul, and the 1333 one in St. Petersburg.[2] Clearly, the Gutman manuscript again stands alone—original in its choice of illustration, which is carried out in a manner uninfluenced by other known schools.
Mary Lukens Swietochowsky in [Swietochowsky and Carboni 1994]
Notes:
1. J. Norgren and E. Davis, Preliminary Index of Shah-Nameh Illustrations, Ann Arbor, 1969, list only one seventeenth-century miniature with this subject.
2. M. S. Simpson. The Illustration of an Epic: The Earliest Shahnama Manuscripts. New York, 1979, no. 32 (Chester Beatty Library, Ms 104.71), p. 381, (McGill, 1971, 2r), not illustrated; Nogren and Davis, 1969 (Istanbul, Topkapi Sarays, Hazine 1479, the 1330 Inju’id Shahnama); A. T. Adamova and L. T. Giuzal'ian, Miniatiury rukopisi poemy "Shakhname" 1333 goda. St. Petersburg, 1985, no. 46.
Ph. Walter Schulz, Leipzig (by 1914); Professor O. Moll, Düsseldorf, Germany ; Monroe C. Gutman, New York (by 1929–d. 1974; bequeathed to MMA)
New York. The Hagop Kevorkian Special Exhibitions Gallery, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Illustrated Poetry and Epic Images: Persian Painting of the 1330s and 1340s," February 1–May 1, 1994, no. 47.
Schulz, Ph. Walter. Die Persisch-Islamische Miniaturmalerei. Vol. vols. I, II. Leipzig: Hiersemann, 1914. vol. 1, pp. 74–75, ill. vol. 2, pl. 16.
Masuya, Tomoko. "The Condition of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Small Shahnama and the Reconstruction of its Text." In Poetry and Epic Images, edited by Marie Lukens Swietochowski, and Stefano Carboni. New York, 1994. pp. 129–45.
Swietochowski, Marie, Stefano Carboni, Tomoko Masuya, and Alexander H. Morton. Illustrated Poetry and Epic Images : Persian Painting of the 1330s and 1340s. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994. no. 47, p. 126, ill. (b/w).
Abu'l Qasim Firdausi (Iranian, Paj ca. 940/41–1020 Tus)
15th century
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