"Bahram Gur Pins the Coupling Onagers", Folio 568r from the Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Shah Tahmaspca. 1530–35
The Sasanian king Bahram Gur takes his nickname from the gur, or onager, the wild ass he loved to hunt. More about this work
About this work
The Sasanian king Bahram Gur takes his nickname from the gur, or onager, the wild ass he loved to hunt. In this episode from Ferdowsi’s Shahnama he demonstrates his legendary marksmanship by pinning a pair of mating onagers together with a single arrow. Hunting scenes of this kind allowed painters to celebrate a king’s strength and skill while filling the page with galloping horses and animals in a sweeping landscape. The page comes from the Shahnama made for Shah Tahmasp at the Safavid court, one of the most celebrated illustrated manuscripts of the Islamic world.
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
- 1970.301.62
- 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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