The Court of Gayumars, folio from Shah Tahmasp’s Shahnama


The Court of Gayumars, folio from Shah Tahmasp’s Shahnama. Sultan Muhammad. c. 1522–1525 C.E. Ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper.

  • comes from an illuminated manuscript of the Shahnama (Book of Kings)—an epic poem describing the history of kingship in Persia (what is now Iran). 
  • its luminous pigments, fine detail, and complex imagery, this copy of the Shahnama stands out in the history of the artistic production in Central Asia. 
  • The Shahnama was written by Abu al-Qāsim Ferdowsi around the year 1000 and is a masterful example of Persian poetry. The epic chronicles kings and heroes who pre-date the introduction of Islam to Persia as well as the human experiences of love, suffering, and death. The epic has been copied countless times—often with elaborate illustrations 
  • manuscript illumination was central to Safavid royal patronage of the arts.
  • This particular manuscript of the Shahnama was begun during the first years of the 16th century for the first Safavid dynastic ruler, Shah Ismail I, but was completed under the direction of his son, Shah Tahmasp I in the northern Persian city of Tabriz; the Safavids controlled large parts of what is today Iran and Azerbaijan; The Safavids actively commissioned the building of public architectural complexes such as mosques
  • It is often assumed that images that include human and animal figures, as seen in the detail below, are forbidden in Islam. Recent scholarship, however, highlights that throughout the history of Islam, there have been periods in which iconoclastic tendencies waxed and waned. That is to say, at specific moments and places, the representation of human or animal figures was tolerated to varying degrees
  • Seated in a cross-legged position, as if levitating within this richly vegetal and mountainous landscape, King Gayumars rises above his courtiers, who are gathered around at the base of the painting. According to legend, King Gayumars was the first king of Persia, and he ruled at a time when people clothed themselves exclusively in leopard pelts. 
  • Onlookers can be seen to surreptitiously peer out from the scraggly, blossoming branches onto King Gayumars from the upper left and right.
  • mountain behind the king in the distance, and the garden below in the foreground.
  • there are multiple points of perspective, and perhaps even multiple moments in time—rendering a scene dense with details meant to absorb and enchant the viewer.
  • One might see stylistic similarities between the swirling blue-gray clouds floating overhead with pictorial representations in Chinese art 
  • Persianate artists under the Safavids regularly incorporated visual motifs and techniques derived from Chinese sources.
  • While the intense pigments of the rocky terrain seem to fade into the lush and verdant animal-laden garden below, a gold sky canopies the scene from above. 
  • This piece—in all its density color, detail, and sheer exuberance—is a testament to the longstanding cultural reverence for Ferdowsi’s epic tale and the unparalleled craftsmanship of both Sultan Muhammad and Shah Tahmasp’s workshops.
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