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Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
Page from a Shahnama Manuscript
Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
© Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami

Page from a Shahnama Manuscript

Artist/Maker (Artist Unknown)
Date17th century
Mediumink, gouache and gilding on paper
DimensionsSheet: 16 1/8 x 9 7/8 in. (41 x 25.1 cm)
ClassificationsInformation Forms
Credit LineMuseum purchase through the Thea Katzenstein Art Acquisition Endowment Fund
Terms
    Object number2011.6.1
    DescriptionThe Shahnama or Book of Kings was the Persian national epic poem, which celebrated the exploits of Persia’s rulers from the beginning of civilization to the advent of Islam. Compiled in 1010 by the poet Firdawsi, the poem consisted of 60,000 rhyming couplets written in Persian. Shahnama manuscripts were often lavish artworks, with meticulously written text and numerous illustrations, as they were generally commissioned by Persian rulers. This opening (two pages side by side) of a seventeenth-century Shahnama manuscript displays a standard approach to the organization of the page: text on one side and an illustration embedded in text on the other. The image depicts a royal audience in a landscape, with the enthroned Persian ruler beneath a canopy surrounded by members of his court. Persian painting is famed for its delicacy and detail, creating a fantasy world of bright color and pattern that encourages the viewer to delve deeper into the text and image. Unlike the Mughal painting style, Persian painting was not concerned with naturalism and observation of the physical world, but rather the representation of pure, if sometimes artificial, beauty.
    On View
    Not on view
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Artist Unknown
    17th century
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Artist Unknown
    mid 19th century
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Central Highlands/Atlantic Watershed
    ca. 1000-1550
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    late 17th century
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Jacopo Palma il Vecchio
    ca. 1510
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Maya (archaeological culture)
    ca. 600-900
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Artist Unknown
    late 19th to early 20th century (printed 1992)
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Maya (archaeological culture)
    ca. 600-900
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Hausa people
    19th to 20th century
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Hausa people
    19th to 20th century