Walters Ms. W.747, Single leaf of a mounted figure attacked by a lion

W.747

Single leaf of a mounted figure attacked by a lion

This drawing, tinted with red, dates to the mid tenth century AH / sixteenth CE and was executed in Safavid Iran. It depicts a man on horseback wearing early Safavid headgear. There are four inscriptions at the bottom of the page, three of which are legible. Two name well-known Persian artists. The inscription on the far right attributes the work to Bihzād, in reference to Kamāl al-Dīn Bihzād (d. 942 AH / 1536-7 CE), the most celebrated Persian painter. The one inscribed in red mentions the Safavid artist Siyāvush (d. ca. 1025 AH / 1616 CE), an enslaved Georgian man who became boon companion to Shāh Ṭahmāsp (r. 930-984 AH / 1524-1576 CE). The seal at the top of the page is dated 1126 AH / 1714 CE. The image is framed by an inner pink border with illuminated floral design and an outer blue border with floral and fauna motifs.

Mid 10th century AH / 16th CE

Iran

Leaf

Historical

The primary language in this manuscript is Persian.

Paper

Mounted on pasteboard

Foliation: Not applicable

22.0 cm wide by 32.5 cm high

1. Image: 10.3 cm wide by 13.5 cm high

1. Title: Mounted figure attacked by a lion
2. Decoration note: Framed by an inner pink border with illuminated floral design and an outer blue border with floral and fauna motifs

fol. W.747a:

1. 
2. Title: Mounted figure attacked by a lion
3. Form: Drawing
4. Label: This drawing, tinted with red, dates to the mid tenth century AH / sixteenth CE and was executed in Safavid Iran. It depicts a man on horseback wearing early Safavid headgear. There are four inscriptions at the bottom of the page, three of which are legible. Two name well-known Persian artists. The inscription on the far right attributes the work to Bihzād, in reference to Kamāl al-Dīn Bihzād (d. 942 AH / 1536-7 CE), the most celebrated Persian painter. The one inscribed in red mentions the Safavid artist Siyāvush (d. ca. 1025 AH / 1616 CE), an enslaved Georgian man who became boon companion to Shāh Ṭahmāsp (r. 930-984 AH / 1524-1576 CE). The seal at the top of the page is dated 1126 AH / 1714 CE.

fol. W.747b:

1. 
2. Title: Mounted figure attacked by a lion (back)
3. Form: Back

Walters Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1952

Robinson, B.W. Persian Drawings from the 14th through the 19th Century. (New York: Shorewood Publishers, 1965), 72.

Principal cataloger: Gacek, Adam

Catalogers: Landau, Amy; Smith, Sita

Copy editor: Bockrath, Diane

Conservators: Jewell, Stephanie; Quandt, Abigail

Contributors: Barrera, Christina; Emery, Doug; Herbert, Lynley; Noel, William; Simpson, Shreve; Tabritha, Ariel; Toth, Michael B.; Valle, Chiara

The Walters Art Museum

Licensed for use under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Access Rights, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/legalcode. It is requested that copies of any published articles based on the information in this data set be sent to the curator of manuscripts, The Walters Art Museum, 600 North Charles Street, Baltimore MD 21201.