A Hunter Shoots a Leopard; Illustration to the Anwar-i Suhaili

ca. 1570–75

Not on view

This painting of a hunter shooting is leopard is a fragment of a larger illustration to the Anwar-i Suhaili (Lights of the Canopus), a Persian version of the Panchatantra (an ancient collection of didactic animal fables in Sanskrit). The story here is on the theme of retribution, told through the viewpoint of the lynx who observes the hunter kill a leopard which had killed a dog, in a chain of animals which had all sequentially killed each other before meeting the same fate—before the dog, a fox, a hedgehog, a snake, and a mouse who began all this when it gnawed a tree. The unflinching depiction of the shot leopard is perhaps the most arresting part of this painting. Communicating the pain of the arrow through its body curled up—and falling forward in shock, yelping face and copious bleeding, drives home the point of the moral tale.

Artwork Details

Overview

Provenance

Exhibition History

References

Title: A Hunter Shoots a Leopard; Illustration to the Anwar-i Suhaili
Date: ca. 1570–75
Geography: Country of Origin India
Medium: Opaque color and gold on paper
Dimensions: Image: Ht. 5 1/4 in. (13.3 cm)
W. 7 in. (17.8 cm)
Frame: Ht. 8 1/2 in. (21.6 cm)
W. 10 1/8 in. (25.7 cm)
D. 1 1/8 in. (2.9 cm)
Classification: Codices
Credit Line: Howard Hodgkin Collection, Purchase, Florence and Herbert Irving Acquisitions, Harris Brisbane Dick, and 2020 Benefit Funds; Howard S. and Nancy Marks, Lila Acheson Wallace, and Friends of Islamic Art Gifts; Louis V. Bell, Harris Brisbane Dick, Fletcher, and Rogers Funds and Joseph Pulitzer Bequest; and funds from various donors, 2022
Object Number: 2022.174
Curatorial Department: Islamic Art

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