A Fourteenth-Century Persian Painting

Author(s): Eric Schroeder

Source: Annual Report (Fogg Art Museum) , 1956 - 1957, No. 1956/1957 (1956 - 1957),
pp. 52-54
Published by: The President and Fellows of Harvard College on behalf of the Harvard
Art Museums

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4301294

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 HARVARD UNIVERSITY

A FOURTEENTH-CENTURY
PERSIAN PAINTING

Edward W. Forbes has given the Museum another

from the so-called Demotte Shahnama.' This prime
fourteenth-century Persian painting is assigned to the
of the century and to the patronage oftheJalairid dyn
at Tabriz and Baghdad. Our page shows the death o
prince Mihr-i-Nush in battle. Its artist has been cal
Assistant (to that painter, probably Shams al-Din, w
the illustration as a whole), and identified with Abd
is recorded by Dust Muhammad as Shams al-Din's
and is an important figure in the history of Persian art
As in the epic, the disastrous quarrel between the
house and the champion Rustam who had been its
to crisis in a lonely duel between Prince Isfandiya
hero. Rustam's sons, with the Sistani host at their b
the Iranian camp, to hurl reproach and insult at th
alists. The armies come to blows, and Isfandiyar's
is slain. "He had a brother named Mihr-i-Nush, a s
but eager with his weapon. In tears, with seething hea
ed soul, he spurred his elephant-bodied steed from
rushed on toward the enemy ranks. Against him
forth like a mad elephant ... Mihr-i-Nush, impetu
was no match for Faramarz. A blow that would fain
noble head rolling in the dust fell on the neck of his h
headed the wind-footed steed. Faramarz struck hi
stood afoot; the blood of Mihr-i-Nush reddened th
and Bahman saw his brother dead, and the earth he
any rose.

I. I956.2I2. I6f x "I5i . Gift ofEdward W. Forbes.

2. Eric Schroeder, Persian Miniatures in the Fogg Museum, Cambridge, I942, pp.
35-39, 64-65; and "Ahmad Musa and Shams al-Din," Ars Islamica, VI (1939) pp.
96-II2.

52

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 l,. fi ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~NV

XIV century Persian mimiature.

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 HARVARD UNIVERSITY

The poet's gay simile chimes with the gay pai

wars in Persian art. The Hindu war-god has a pe
ganic agony masked by the haughtiness and gaiet
by impassive steel and flower-like heraldic coats,
tinomy which has often affected man as artist
and very profoundly in Japan. Perhaps partly be
presses it more than did the gloomy dramatic
al-Din, Abd al-Hayy was, we are told, imitated
masters after his death. The present work's color
harmony of blue and gold, which are also the h
title-label. On a background wholly gold the str
tion is an arch of blue shapes: the two outermost
liers, and the bridle-arm and death-dealing arm of
the label's pure ultramarine. The victim's coat d
arch of accent in an inky blue. Various orange ef
cations of blue to blue-green and violet are used
tlety in the subsidiary coloring. We cannot know
battleflags which once fluttered in the lost uppe
whole tonal effect is gay, delicate and flower-like.
expressionless as visored helms.
A special interest attaches to this work. If, as the
it is by Abd al-Hayy, then it is our principal te
style of the vanished battle-paintings with whic
Abd al-Hayy decorate the walls of his palace at
uable for its beauty, it is also an invaluable piece
dence.
ERIC SCHROEDER

S4

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