"Bahram Gur Hunting with Azada", Folio from a Shahnama (Book of Kings)dated 753 AH/1352 CE
The Sasanian king Bahram Gur rides out on a camel with his harpist Azada, who dares him to prove his skill: turn a male gazelle into a female and a female into a male, and pin a gazelle’s hoof to its ear. More about this work
About this work
The Sasanian king Bahram Gur rides out on a camel with his harpist Azada, who dares him to prove his skill: turn a male gazelle into a female and a female into a male, and pin a gazelle’s hoof to its ear. He does all three with his arrows, but when she calls the feat demonic he throws her down and tramples her beneath the camel. The episode, from Ferdowsi’s Shahnama, was a favourite with Persian painters because it combines a hunt, a royal display of skill and a moral sting. This page comes from a manuscript of the epic dated 1352.
Written by Ochre Editions.
How it was made
- Opaque watercolour
- Watercolour made opaque with white or chalk and laid in flat, even layers. Persian and Indian painters ground their colours from minerals, applied them with the finest brushes and burnished the finished page.
- Watercolour
- Pigment in gum arabic, thinned with water and laid in transparent washes. Nothing white is painted: the light is the paper showing through.
- Ink on paper
- Ink made from soot and animal glue, ground with water on an inkstone. A single brush can give a hair-fine line or a broad wash, and nothing can be corrected.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The Met has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 57.51.32
- Credit
- Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Type
- Codices
- Department
- Islamic Art
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
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