"Isfandiyar's Third Course: He Slays a Dragon", Folio 434v from the Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Shah Tahmaspca. 1530
On the third of his seven trials, the prince Isfandiyar faces a dragon. More about this work
About this work
On the third of his seven trials, the prince Isfandiyar faces a dragon. He has a wooden carriage built and fitted with sharp blades, hides inside, and lets the beast swallow it whole; the blades cut the dragon from within, and Isfandiyar climbs out to finish it with his sword, though he is overcome for a time by its poisonous breath. The story, from Ferdowsi’s Shahnama, appears here on a page from the copy made for Shah Tahmasp around 1530, in which the court painters of Tabriz gave dragons coiling, richly patterned bodies drawn from Chinese art.
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
- 1970.301.51
- 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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