Rustam's seventh course: He kills the White Div, folio 124 from a Shah-nama (Book of Kings) of Firdausi (Persian, about 934–1020) (1520–37): Art, History and Details

Rustam's seventh course: He kills the White Div, folio 124 from a Shah-nama (Book of Kings) of Firdausi (Persian, about 934–1020) (1520–37) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Mir Musavvir (Iranian, c. 1510–1555); Abd al-Vahhab (Persian, active c. 1516).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The legendary hero Rustam brutally takes the demon chief’s liver blood, needed to cure his king of blindness. Paintings from the Shah-nama made for the Persian ruler Shah Tahmasp (reigned 1524–76) were acclaimed in their day for their brilliant coloring and refinement. Seven of the artists who contributed to this book moved to India to lead the new Mughal painting workshop in the 1550s. They introduced to the Indian artists a more complex color sensibility and preference for presenting faces in three-quarter view, as opposed to in profile.

Object facts

• 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)
• Date: 1520–37
• Creator attribution: Mir Musavvir (Iranian, c. 1510–1555); Abd al-Vahhab (Persian, active c. 1516)
• Culture: Iran, Tabriz, Safavid period (1501-1722)
• Type: Manuscript
• Technique: Gum tempera, ink, gold, and silver on paper
• Dimensions: 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.)
• Collection: Islamic Art
• Department: Islamic Art
• Accession number: 1988.96

A detail from the museum

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

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• 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 (April 1993): 148-153.
• Franklin, David and C. Griffith Mann. Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2012.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.