Bahram Chubineh puts to flight the armies of Saveh Shah, from a Shahnameh for Qivan al-Din, the Inju vizier
Iran, Shiraz, Bahram Chubineh puts to flight the armies of Saveh Shah, from a Shahnameh for Qivan al-Din, the Inju vizier, 1341, ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Edwin Binney, 3rd, public domain, 70.27.3
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- Title
Bahram Chubineh puts to flight the armies of Saveh Shah, from a Shahnameh for Qivan al-Din, the Inju vizier
- Artist
- Date
1341
- Period
Iran: Inju dynasty (ca. 1325-1353)
- Medium
ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper
- Dimensions (H x W x D)
sheet: 14 3/8 in x 11 7/8 in
- Collection Area
Asian Art
- Category
Paintings
Islamic Art
- Object Type
manuscript leaf
- Culture
Iranian
- Credit Line
Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Edwin Binney, 3rd
- Accession Number
70.27.3
- Copyright
public domain
- Terms
- Place Made
Created in: Shiraz
The Shahnameh describes in stirring prose how the Iranian hero Bahram Chubineh and his 12,000 warriors defeated the far greater army of the Turk Saveh Shah, by driving the Turk's war elephants backward to trample their own troops. Given the narrow confines of the picture frame—a condition imposed on the painter by the ruled lines of the page—the artist has brilliantly condensed the episode to a chase scene. He suggests massed figures by overlapping warriors and horses and emphasizes the hero by placing him in the center of the composition, silhouetted against the red background.
From a colophon on another page of this dispersed manuscript, the patron has been identified as the Inju vizier, Qivan al-Din.
