"Iskandar Speaks with the Bird on the Mountain", Folio from a Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Firdausi

Iskandar Speaks with the Bird on the Mountain

Iskandar came to a high bright mountain on the top of which were four tall columns, each with a nest containing a huge green bird. One engaged iskandar in conversation, at the end advising him to go alone and on foot to the topmost peak where he could find Israfil, who would warn Iskandar of his impending death.

In the miniature, Iskandar stands alone in the mountains, looking up with his arms raised. On either side of him is a column topped with a vase-like form. There are no birds in the picture, but the page has been patched with chevron-shaped strips and repainted, so that a bird or birds may be missing from this section.

In the Great Ilkhanid Shahnama there is a painting of Iskandar in the mountains that has been entitled "Alexander Arriving at the Mountain of Israfil."[1] The missing triangle at the upper left is presumed to have contained Israfil. In spite of the stylistic differences between the two paintings, they are surprisingly close in spirit.

Mary Lukens Swietochowsky in [Swietochowsky and Carboni 1994]

Notes:

1. O. Grabar and S. Blair, Epic Images and Contemporary History. The Illustrations of the Great Mongol Shahnama. Chicago and London, 1980, no. 35 (Louvre, 7094); see, however, J. Norgren and E. Davis, Preliminary Index of Shah-Nameh Illustrations, Ann Arbor, 1969, where the same picture is entitled: "Eskandar and the Talking Birds."

Ph. Walter Schulz, Leipzig, Germany (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. 39.

Schulz, Ph. Walter. Die Persisch-Islamische Miniaturmalerei. Vol. vols. I, II. Leipzig: Hiersemann, 1914. vol. 1, pp. 74–75.

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. 39, p. 117, ill. (b/w).

Casagrande-Kim, Roberta, ed. "Islamic Transformations of the Classical Past." In Romance and Reason. Princeton and Oxford: Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University, 2018. p. 39, ill. fig. 2–10.