1939.225: Tahmina Comes into Rustam's Chamber, illustrated folio from a manuscript of the Shahnama of Firdawsi

Identification and Creation

Object Number

1939.225

Title

Tahmina Comes into Rustam's Chamber, illustrated folio from a manuscript of the Shahnama of Firdawsi

Classification

Manuscripts

Work Type

manuscript folio

Date

c. 1434

Places

Creation Place: Central Asia, Afghanistan, Herat

Period

Timurid period

Culture

Persian

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/303529

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Opaque watercolor and gold on paper

Dimensions

painting: 20.8 x 10.5 cm (8 3/16 x 4 1/8 in.)
Page: 30 x 17.5 cm

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

H. Khan Monif, New York, NY, (by 1939), sold; to Fogg Art Museum, 1939.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Mrs. Elise Cabot Forbes and Mr. Eric Schroeder and Annie S. Coburn Fund

Accession Year

1939

Object Number

1939.225

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Descriptions

Description

This Shahnama painting shows the new direction manuscript painting took in the Timurid court workshops of the fifteenth century. Highest quality materials were applied with exquisite draftsmanship at a very small scale and in a two-dimensional space. Although no text is preserved, later compositions based on this painting confirm that it illustrates the Shahnama episode where Tahmina, the beautiful daughter of the King of Samangan, comes quietly at night to Rustam’s chamber to tell him that she wishes to marry him and bear his child. Caught by surprise but enticed by her charm, Rustam spends the night with Tahmina. The painting draws our attention to the nonverbal communication between Tahmina and Rustam as well as the fine details of the setting. A bejeweled Tahmina wearing a fur-lined coat looks coyly behind the candle held by her chambermaid. Rustam, shown under the covers, gazes intently at her figure with his hand on a pillow beckoning her. His armor and weapons, situated behind his bed, are symbolic of his heroic valor. With such jewel-like details this painting is not only a great work of art, but a testimony to the splendor of Timurid palace interiors, now lost.

Publication History

• Phyllis Ackerman, Guide to the Exhibition of Persian Art, exh. cat., Iranian Institute (New York, NY, 1940), pp.251-252
• Eric Schroeder, Persian Miniatures in the Fogg Museum of Art, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA, 1942), pp. 51-52, fig. 8
• Arthur Upham Pope, Masterpieces of Persian Art, The Dryden Press (New York, 1945), p. 161, pl. 119
• Ivan Stchoukine, Les Peintures des Manuscrits Timurides, P. Geuthner (Paris, 1954), p. 8, no. 3, p. 42, no. XVI
• Williams Lillys, ed., Persian Miniatures: The Story of Rustam, Charles E. Tuttle Co. (Rutland, VT, 1958), p. 16, pl. 2
• Basil William Robinson, Persian Drawings from the 14th through the 19th Century, Shorewood Publishers Inc. (New York, NY, 1965), p. 132, pl. 11
• Basil William Robinson, Two Persian Manuscripts in the Library of the Marquess of Bute, Oriental Art (Winter 1971), vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 333-336, p. 335
• Eleanor Sims, The Timurid Imperial Style: Its Origins and Diffusion, Art and Archaeology Research Papers (1974), vol. 6, pp. 56-67, p. 61
• Marianna Shreve Simpson, Arab and Persian Painting in the Fogg Art Museum, Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1980), pp. 11-12, 35-37, no. 8, ill.
• Michele de Angelis and Thomas W. Lentz, Architecture in Islamic Painting: Permanent and Impermanent Worlds, brochure, Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, Mass, 1982)
• Wiebke Walther, Die Frau im Islam (1983), p. 30, fig. 19
• A. M. Kevorkian and J.P. Sicre, Les Jardins du desir: Sept siecles de peinture persane, Phebus (Paris, France, 1983), pp30-31
• Kristin A. Mortimer and William G. Klingelhofer, Harvard University Art Museums: A Guide to the Collections, Harvard University Art Museums and Abbeville Press (Cambridge and New York, 1986), page 73/figure 76
• Thomas W. Lentz and Glenn D. Lowry, Timur and the Princely Vision: Persian Art and Culture in the Fifteenth Century, exh. cat., Museum Associates (Los Angeles, CA, 1989), pp130-131, 338, cat. no.45
• Andrew Pekarik, Painting Behind the Scenes, Hyperion Press (New York, NY, 1992), pg. 16, color
• James Cuno, Alvin L. Clark, Jr., Ivan Gaskell, and William W. Robinson, Harvard's Art Museums: 100 Years of Collecting, ed. James Cuno, Harvard University Art Museums and Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (Cambridge, MA, 1996), page 130-131
• Masterpieces of world art : Fogg Art Museum, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Busch-Reisinger Museum, 1997
• Ehsan Yarshater and Stuart Cary Welch, The Lion and the Throne: Stories From the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi Volume I, Mage Publishers (Washington, D.C, 1998), page 270/details on pgs 208, 210
• Eleanor Sims, Boris I. Marshak, and Ernst Grube, Peerless Images: Persian Painting and its Sources, Yale University Press (U.S.) (New Haven; London, 2002), pp. 195-196, fig. 108
• Stephan Wolohojian and Alvin L. Clark, Jr., Harvard Art Museum/ Handbook, ed. Stephan Wolohojian, Harvard Art Museum (Cambridge, 2008), p. 51
• Oliver Watson, "The Case of the Ottoman Table", Journal of the David Collection, ed. Kjeld von Folsach and Joachim Meyer, The David Collection (Copenhagen, 2010), Vol. 3, pp.22-53., p. 42, fig. 29.

Exhibition History

• Arab and Persian Painting, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 02/10/1981 - 03/09/1981
• The House of Timur: Princely Arts in Fifteenth-Century Iran and Central Asia, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington, 04/14/1989 - 07/06/1989; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, 08/13/1989 - 11/05/1989
• Islamic Art: The Power of Pattern, Harvard University Art Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 09/23/1989 - 01/17/1990
• Paintings for Princes: The Art of the Book in Islam, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 01/27/1990 - 03/25/1990
• Transformations: Asia East and West, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 12/19/1992 - 02/14/1993
• In Detail: Looking at Persian, Turkish and Indian Pictures, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/11/1995 - 01/21/1996
• The Sensuous and the Sublime: Representations of Love in the Arts of the Middle East and Southern Asia, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 07/07/2001 - 12/30/2001
• Romantic Interludes: Women in Firdawsi's Shahnama, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, 04/24/2010 - 01/16/2011
• 32Q: 2550 Islamic, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 05/14/2015

Subjects and Contexts

• Collection Highlights
• Google Art Project

Verification Level