Mir Musavvir / Rustam's Seventh Course: He Kills the White Div: Illustration from the Manuscript, the "Tahmasp Shahnama" of Firdausi (folio 124r) / 1520s-1540s

Mir Musavvir
Rustam's Seventh Course: He Kills the White Div: Illustration from the Manuscript, the "Tahmasp Shahnama" of Firdausi (folio 124r)
1520s-1540s
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Creator Name: Musavvir, Mir
Creator Qualifier: Attributed to
Creator Nationality: Asian; Middle Eastern; Persian
Creator Role: Artist
Creator Dates/Places: 1533 - 1609
Gender: M
Creator Name-CRT: Mir Musavvir
Title: Rustam's Seventh Course: He Kills the White Div: Illustration from the Manuscript, the "Tahmasp Shahnama" of Firdausi (folio 124r)
Title Type: Primary
View: Full View
Creation Start Date: 1520
Creation End Date: 1549
Creation Date: 1520s-1540s
Object Type: Paintings
Materials and Techniques: opaque watercoler, gold and silver on paper
Dimensions: Sheet: 47.5cm x 32.2cm
AMICA Contributor: The Cleveland Museum of Art
Owner Location: Cleveland, Ohio, USA
ID Number: 1988.96
Credit Line: Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund
Rights: http://www.clemusart.com/museum/disclaim2.html
Provenance: Baron Edmond de Rothschild; Arthur A. Houghton, Jr.
Context: This painting, both lyrical and bloody-minded, is from a royal Shahnama that ranks as one of the greatest Persian manuscripts ever produced. Known as the "Tahmasp Shahnama" after Shah Tahmasp I (r. 1524-76), for whom it was made, it is considered the crucible in which the Safavid style of painting was forged. Ambitious and luxurious, it contained 258 splendid, large-scale paintings and over 700 pages of elegant calligraphy on gold-flecked paper.Illustrated here is Rustam's battle with the great White Div (demon). Awaiting the outcome of the battle are members of the White Div's army in the background, and, in the foreground, Rustam's horse Rakhsh and the guide Aulad, tied to a tree Firdausi's verses, in text boxes above and below the painting, energetically describe the action:They wrestled, tearing out each other's flesh,Till all the ground was puddled with their blood...[Rustam] reached out, clutched the Div, raised him neck-high,And dashed the life-breath from him on the ground,Then with a dagger stabbed him to the heartAnd plucked the liver from his swarthy form:The carcass filled the cave, and all the worldWas like a sea of blood...
AMICA ID: CMA_.1988.96
AMICA Library Year: 1999
Media Metadata Rights: Copyright, The Cleveland Museum of Art

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