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Collection Online as of March 23, 2024

Rustam's seventh course: He kills the White Div, folio 124 from a Shah-nama (Book of Kings) of Firdausi (Persian, about 934–1020)

Rustam's seventh course: He kills the White Div, folio 124 from a Shah-nama (Book of Kings) of Firdausi (Persian, about 934–1020)

1520–40

attributed to Mir Musavvir

(Iranian, c. 1510–1555)

attributed to Abd al-Vahhab

(Persian, active c. 1516)
Sheet: 47.5 x 32.2 cm (18 11/16 x 12 11/16 in.); Image: 28.4 x 18.5 cm (11 3/16 x 7 5/16 in.)
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

The Shahnameh is a mixture of a mythology and a history of the Iranian people.

Description

This spectacular painting, both lyrical and fierce, comes from one of the greatest Iranian manuscripts ever produced. The royal copy of the national Iranian epic, the Shahnama, or Book of Kings, was made for Shah Tahmasp during the 1520s and 1540s. The book was even acclaimed in its own day for "the coloring and the portraiture" found in its 258 paintings.

The legendary hero Rustam, identified by his tiger-skin clothing, kills the savage chief of the demons, the White Div, in an immense cave, as other demons watch from above. Completing this last of seven trials, Rustam uses the White Div's blood to cure the Iranian king Kay Kavus of his blindness. The painting is set in a spectacular spring landscape with blossoming trees and brilliantly colored rocks that bend like spectators:

They wrestled, tearing out each other's flesh,
Till all the ground was puddled with their blood...
[Rustam] reached out, clutched the Div, raised him neck-high,
And dashed the life-breath from him on the ground,
Then with a dagger stabbed him to the heart
And plucked the liver from his swarthy form:
The carcass filled the cave, and all the world
Was like a sea of blood...
  • 1520s–1567
    Shah Tahmasp شاه تهماسب یکم‎ [1514–1576], Iran, given to Ottoman Sultan Selim II
    1567–?
    Ottoman Sultan Selim II [1524–1574], Istanbul, Ottoman Empire
    until early 1900s
    Topkapı Palace library, Istanbul, Ottoman Empire
    early 1900s–?
    Baron Edmond de Rothschild [1845–1934], Boulogne-Billancourt, France
    ?–October 14, 1988
    Arthur A. Houghton, Jr. [1906–1990]
    October 14, 1988
    (Christie's, London, UK, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1988–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Reif, Rita. "Auctions." The New York Times. 29 July 1988.
    McWilliams, Mary. ""Rustam's Seventh Course: He Slays the White Div": A Painting from the Tahmasp "Shahnama"." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 80, no. 4 (1993): 148-53. Reproduced: p. 150; Mentioned: p. 148-53 www.jstor.org
    Franklin, David and C. Griffith Mann. Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2012. Reproduced: pp. 166-167
    Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 229–230
  • Art and Stories from Mughal India. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 31-October 23, 2016).
    The Year in Review for 1988. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 1-May 14, 1989).
    Main Gallery Rotation (gallery 116). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (December 16, 2013-December 15, 2014).
  • {{cite web|title=Rustam's seventh course: He kills the White Div, folio 124 from a Shah-nama (Book of Kings) of Firdausi (Persian, about 934–1020)|url=false|author=Mir Musavvir, Abd al-Vahhab|year=1520–40|access-date=23 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1988.96