"Bahram Chubina Kills the Lion-Shaped Ape Monster", Folio from a Shahnama (Book of Kings)

Bahram Chubina Kills the Lion-Shaped Ape Monster", Folio from a Shahnama of Ferdowski

The Shahnama or Book of Kings, the Persian national epic, was written by the poet Ferdowski from about A.D. 975 to 1010. Based on written sources and oral tradition, it recounts the history of Iran from its legendary beginnings to the fall of the Sasanian dynasty at the hands of the Arab invaders in the middle of the seventh century. Bahram Chubina was an outstanding general of the Sasanian king Hormozd IV (reigned A.D. 758–90). Eventually he rebelled after the death of Hormozd and usurped the throne of Iran for a short and turbulent period. His adventurous life inspired a popular romance, parts of which were incorporated in the Shahnama. In the epic tradition, his story included heroic deeds against fearsome monsters, as depicted here.

This delightful miniature comes from a dispersed manuscript, belonging to a group of several such "small Shahnamas," all undated, but stylistically belonging to the early decades of the fourteenth century.

Gold is generally used for the background and various decorative details. The drawing is fine and the compositions simple but pleasing. The preference for pastel shades in the coloring is traceable to the pervasive Chinese influences on Persian painting during the period of Mongol dominance, which emerged in such details as the dense lotus-peony pattern of the hero's costume and his horse's saddle. In no way submerged by foreign influences, however, is the strong commitment to the decorative that is a universal strand throughout all Persian painting. It lends an air of tranquility to reprentations of even the most violent deeds. Here it emerges in the sinuous twisting of the tree around the mountains in counter-rhythm to the curves in the tail and body of the bounding monster. This fearsome lion-ape appears in the guise of an outsized tiger, perhaps the most ferocious creature in the artist's experience. Definitive evidence has not yet emerged that would determine the artistic center for miniatures of this style; suggestions have ranged from Baghdad to Sultanate India as well as a variety of Persian cities.

Mary Lukens Swietochowski in [Berlin 1981]

Marking: On the back, in pencil: 6

Textile Museum, Washington (until 1969; sold to MMA)

Simpson, Marianna. "The Illustration of an Epic: The Earliest Shahnama Manuscripts." PhD diss., Garland Publishing, Inc., 1979. p. 376, ill. fig. 5 (b/w).

"Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art New York." In The Arts of Islam. Berlin, 1981. no. 20, pp. 70–71, ill. (b/w).