- Provenance
-
To 1945
Dikran G. Kelekian (1868-1951), Cairo, Egypt, Paris, France, and New York to 1945 [1]From 1945
Freer Gallery of Art, purchased from Dikran G. Kelekian, New York, in 1945 [2]Notes:
[1] See Freer Gallery or Art Purchase List after 1920, Collections Management Office.
[2] See note 1.
- Previous Owner(s) and Custodian(s)
-
Dikran Garabed Kelekian 1868-1951
- Description
-
Detached folio from a dispersed copy of the Shahnama (Book of kings) by Firdawsi; text: Persian in black and red naskh script; illustration and text: Rustam rescues Bijan from the well, 6 columns, 21 lines; reverse: text, 6 columns, 30 lines; one of a group of 7 folios.
Border: The text and the painting have been remargined and mounted on to another paper.
- Label
-
The story of the Persian hero Bizhan and the Turanian princess Manizha, the daughter of Afrasiyab, is a rare romantic interlude in the feuds between Iran and Turan in the Shahnama (Book of kings), the Persian national epic. When the Turanian tyrant Afrasiyab finds out about his daughter's love for Bizhan, he captures the youth and imprisons him in a well. This fourteenth-century illustration depicts the final episode in the romance, when Rustam comes to Bizhan's aid. According to Firdawsi, when Rustam's companions are unable to move the rock covering the well, "With a prayer to the creator to be granted strength, he [Rustam] stretched out his hand and without a moment's delay lifted the boulder, which he threw into the forest in the land of China, thus causing the whole surface of the earth to quake."
- Published References
-
- Grace Dunham Guest. Notes on the Miniatures on a 13th Century Beaker. vol. 10 Ann Arbor. fig. 17.
- Collection Area(s)
- Arts of the Islamic World
- Web Resources
- Google Cultural Institute
- SI Usage Statement
-
Usage Conditions Apply
There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.
-
CC0 - Creative Commons (CC0 1.0)
This image is in the public domain (free of copyright restrictions). You can copy, modify, and distribute this work without contacting the Smithsonian. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.
Usage Conditions Apply
There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.
To Download
Chrome users: right click on icon, select "save link as..."
Internet Explorer users: right click on icon, select "save target as..."
Mozilla Firefox users: right click on icon, select "save link as..."
International Image Interoperability Framework
FS-8182_05