Attributed to Sultan Muhammad, Painting from the Shahnameh of Firdausi, 1515–22 (Safavid dynasty, Iran), 31.5 x 20.7 cm (The British Museum, London). Sussan Babaie: Looking at Persian Painting from HENI Talks on YouTube.
Professor Sussan Babaie explores the rich effects of a painting from an illustrated manuscript of the Shahnameh — or ‘Book of Kings’ — the national epic of Iran composed by poet Firdawsi around 1010. But what is so important about this painting?
The work has been attributed to the Persian painter Sultan Muhammad, a skilled master at the atelier of the Aqqoyunlu Turkmen in Tabriz. It depicts the hero of the Shahnameh, Rostam, resting unbeknownst that danger lurks nearby.… Babaie unpacks the painterly ideas at play in depicting this dramatic moment.
