id: 123432 accession number: 1943.658 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1943.658 updated: 2023-03-25 11:14:24.503000 Bahram Gur Arrives at the House of a Merchant, text page (recto); Bahram Gur Slays a Dragon (verso), from a Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Firdausi (940-1019 or 1025), known as the Great Mongol Shahnama, 1330–35. Iran, Tabriz, Ilkhanid period (1256-1353). Opaque watercolor, ink, and gold on paper; sheet: 45.8 x 34.4 cm (18 1/16 x 13 9/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Grace Rainey Rogers Fund 1943.658 title: Bahram Gur Arrives at the House of a Merchant, text page (recto); Bahram Gur Slays a Dragon (verso), from a Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Firdausi (940-1019 or 1025), known as the Great Mongol Shahnama title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1330–35 creation date earliest: 1330 creation date latest: 1335 current location: creditline: Grace Rainey Rogers Fund copyright: --- culture: Iran, Tabriz, Ilkhanid period (1256-1353) technique: opaque watercolor, ink, and gold on paper department: Islamic Art collection: Islamic Art type: Manuscript find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS --- measurements: Sheet: 45.8 x 34.4 cm (18 1/16 x 13 9/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Islamic Art opening date: 1944-11-03T04:00:00 Islamic Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 3, 1944-February 2, 1945). title: Persian Decorative Art opening date: 1952-01-15T05:00:00 Persian Decorative Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 15-March 16, 1952). title: The World of Miniature Painting opening date: 1953-09-20T04:00:00 The World of Miniature Painting. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 20-November 10, 1953). title: Persian Art Before and After the Mongol Conquest opening date: 1959-04-09T05:00:00 Persian Art Before and After the Mongol Conquest. University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI (organizer) (April 9-May 17, 1959). title: The Exhibition of Persian Art: 7000 Years of Art in Iran opening date: 1961-10-19T04:00:00 The Exhibition of Persian Art: 7000 Years of Art in Iran. Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France (organizer) (October 19, 1961-January 31, 1962). title: Muslim Miniature Paintings opening date: 1962-09-01T04:00:00 Muslim Miniature Paintings. Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, Italy, Venezia, Italy (organizer) (September 1-October 31, 1962); The Asia Society Museum, New York, NY (December 4, 1962-February 3, 1963). title: The Classical Style in Islamic Painting opening date: 1968-11-01T05:00:00 The Classical Style in Islamic Painting. The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (organizer) (November 1, 1968-January 4, 1969). title: Persian Miniature Manuscripts opening date: 1977-08-13T04:00:00 Persian Miniature Manuscripts. The Scottish Arts Council Gallery, Edinburgh, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (organizer) (August 13-September 11, 1977). title: The Twain Shall Meet opening date: 1985-10-30T05:00:00 The Twain Shall Meet. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 30, 1985-January 5, 1986). title: The Legacy of Genghis Khan: Courtly Art and Culture in Western Asia 1256-1353 opening date: 2002-10-28T00:00:00 The Legacy of Genghis Khan: Courtly Art and Culture in Western Asia 1256-1353. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (October 28, 2002-February 16, 2003); Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (April 13-July 27, 2003). title: Islamic art rotation opening date: 2013-12-16T05:00:00 Islamic art rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 16, 2013-December 15, 2014). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * International Exhibition of Persian Art. Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK (January 7-February 28, 1931). * Islamic Miniature Painting and Book Illumination. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (October 9, 1933-January 7, 1934). * Persian Art. Iranian Institute, New York, NY (1940). * Islamic and Indian Miniature Paintings and Manuscripts. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (December 15, 1955-February 19, 1956). * Exhibition of Persian Art. Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, Rome, Italy (May-October 1956). * 7000 Ans d'art en Iran. Petit Palais, Paris, France (October-November 1961). * Muslim Miniature Paintings from American Collections. Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, Italy; Asia House, New York, NY (September 1962-February 1963). * Imperial Images in Persian Painting. The Scottish Arts Council, Edinburgh, Scotland (August 13-September 11, 1977). * Islamic Gallery Rotation (gallery 116). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (October 30, 2018–January 4, 2019). --- PROVENANCE (Georges Demotte [1877–1923], New York, NY) date: c. 1910–? footnotes: citations: Wells date: footnotes: citations: Grace Rainey Rogers [1867–1943], New York, NY date: before 1943 footnotes: citations: (Heeramaneck Galleries, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) date: ?–1943 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1943– footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: The Shahnama is an epic poem that traces the fortunes of heroes and kings, of lovers and enemies. digital description: wall description: In this intense painting, Bahram Gur plunges his sword into the breast of a dragon. A favorite character from Iran's pre-Islamic history, Bahram Gur (reigned 420–38) was a popular ruler of the Sassanian dynasty and a great hunter. He took the name "Gur," meaning onager (a wild ass), because it was his preferred game, although he also excelled at killing dragons. As evidenced by this illustration's rock formations, tree trunk, and dragon, Iranian painting in the Mongol period borrowed numerous stylistic and spatial elements from Chinese models. With the surging landscape and writhing dragon rendered with equal energy, this is a picture of extraordinary unity and concentration. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Komaroff, Linda, and Stefano Carboni. The Legacy of Genghis Khan: Courtly Art and Culture in Western Asia, 1256-1353. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2002. page number: 257 and 160 url: Curatola, Giovanni, and Gianroberto Scarcia. Iran: l'arte persiana. Milano: Jaca Book, 2004. page number: 198-199 url: Exhibition of Persian Art (1931, London). Catalogue of the International Exhibition of Persian Art: 7th Jan. to 28th Feb., 1931. 1931. page number: url: Erdman, Kurt. "La Mostra d'arte Persiana a Londra." Dedalo XI (April 1931). page number: 826 url: Royal Academy of Arts (Great Britain), Laurence Binyon, Basil Gray, and J. V. S. Wilkinson. Persian Miniature Painting. Including a Critical and Descriptive Catalogue of the Miniatures Exhibited at Burlington House, January-March, 1931. By Laurence Binyon, J.V.S. Wilkinson and Basil Gray. London: Oxford University Press, 1933. page number: url: Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.), and Dimand, Maurice Sven. A Guide to an Exhibition of Islamic Miniature Painting and Book Illumination / by M. S. Dimand. New York : The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1933. . page number: url: Lorey, E. de. ""L'Ecole de Tabriz." Revue des Arts Asiatiques I (1935). page number: url: Schroeder, Eric. "Ahmed Musa and Shams al-Din: A Review of Fourteenth Century Painting." Ars Islamica VI, pt 2 (1939). page number: 132-133 url: Iranian Institute of America (New York, N.Y.), and Phyllis Ackerman. Guide to the Exhibition of Persian Art : ... New York, 1940. New York (N.Y.): > Iranian Institute, 1940. page number: 246 url: Parke-Bernet Galleries. French XVIII Century Furniture, Paintings, Drawings, Etc., Collection of Grace Rainey Rogers 1943/11/18-20. [N.Y.]: [Parke-Bernet galleries, Inc., auctioneers], 1943. page number: 140 url: Dimand, M.S. "An Exhibition of Islamic and Indian Paintings." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art XIV (Dec. 1955). page number: 88 url: Istituto italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente (Roma). Mostra D'arte Iranica: Catalogo, Palazzo Brancaccio, Roma, Giugno-Agosto 1956 = Exhibition of Iranian Art : Catalogue, Palazzo Brancaccio, Roma, June-August 1956. Milano: Silvana editoriale d'arte, 1956. page number: url: University of Michigan. Persian Art Before and After the Mongol Conquest [Exhibition] April 9-May 17, 1959, the University of Michigan, Museum of Art, Ann Arbor. 1959. . page number: url: Paris. Sept mille ans d'art en Iran: [exposition], Petit Palais, octobre 1961-janvier 1962. Paris: Petit Palais, 1962. page number: 192 url: Rosenzweig, Daphne Lange. "Stalking the Persian Dragon: Chinese Prototypes for Miniature Representations." Kunst des Orients XII 1/2 (1978-1979). page number: 151-176 url: Grabar, Oleg, and Sheila Blair. Epic Images and Contemporary History: The Illustrations of the Great Mongol Shahnama. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1980. page number: 154-155 url: Williams, Marjorie. "Dragons, Porcelains and Demons: Cultural Exchange Between China and Persia." Orientations vol. 18 no. 8 (August 1986). page number: 86 url: Lentz, Thomas W. Timur and the Princely Vision: Persian Art and Culture in the Fifteenth Century : [Exhibition, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., 16.04.-06.07.1989 ... Etc.]. [S.l.]: [s.n.], 1989. page number: 53 url: The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 720 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1958/page/n131 Persian Art Before And After the Mongol Conquest.: [Exhibition] April 9-May 17, 1959. the University of Michigan, Museum of Art, Ann Arbor. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan, Museum of Art, 1959. page number: Mentioned: cat. no. 148, p. 43 url: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. page number: Reproduced: p. 221 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n245 The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. page number: Reproduced: p. 221 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n245 The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. page number: Reproduced: p. 278 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n298 Komaroff, Linda, and Stefano Carboni, eds. The Legacy of Genghis Khan: Courtly Art and Culture in Western Asia, 1256-1353. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art; New Haven: Yale University Press [distributor], 2002. page number: Reproduced: cat no. 56, p. 257, fig. 187, p. 160 url: Curatola, Giovanni, and Gianroberto Scarcia. Iran: l'arte persiana. Milano: Jaca Book, 2004. page number: Reproduced: fig.162, pp. 198-199 url: Hagedorn, Annette, and Norbert Wolf. Islamic Art. Hong Kong: Taschen, 2009. page number: Reproduced: fig. 16, p. 18 url: Hillenbrand, Robert. "Color in the Great Mongol Shahnama." In Manuscripts in the Making: Art & Science. Stella Panayotova and Paola Ricciardi. London; Turnhout: Harvey Miller, 2017. page number: Reproduced: p. 217; ill. 3 url: Coffey, Heather. "Collapsing Geography and Orientalizing Pigment in a Fourteenth-Century Chromoshpere: Italian Painting and Ilkhanid Ceramics." In The Seas and the Mobility of Islamic Art. Radha Dalal, Sean E. Roberts, and Jochen A. Sokoly eds., 38-53. Biennial Hamad bin Khalifa Symposium on Islamic Art and Culture, 2021. New Haven: Yale University Press; [Ar-Rayyan, Qatar]: in association with Qatar Foundation; [Richmond, Virginia]: Virginia Commonwealth University; [Education City, Doha, Qatar]: and Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar, 2021. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: P. 47, fig. 2.5 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1943.658/1943.658_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1943.658/1943.658_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1943.658/1943.658_full.tif