"Gushtasp Slays the Dragon of Mount Saqila", Folio from a Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Firdausi

Gushtasp Slays the Dragon of Mount Saqila

A suitor for the hand of Caesar's youngest daughter was also given a mighty feat to perform—the slaying of the terrible dragon of Mount Saqila. Gushtasp again volunteered to face the monster, after demanding a long double-toothed sword. By his courage and prowess, Gushtasp prevailed and killed the dragon, first thrusting the sword down its throat and then splashing its head. In the miniature this drama takes place in a mountain setting against a red ground. The illustration is stepped so that at the left there are five lines of text below it instead of two. The dragon takes up two-thirds of the composition, while Gushtasp stands before it, slashing at its head with a sword. Only the head, neck, and forelegs of the hero's steed are visible at the right. Because in the epic Gushtasp dismounts after the dragon is dead to remove some of its teeth, so the artist here has taken certain liberties for the sake of dramatic effect, achieved by the face-to-face proximity of the combatants.

In both the First and Second Small Shahnamas Gushtasp is seen on his horse charging from the left while thrusting a long spear-like weapon, toothed at the end, into the dragon's open mouth.[1] The treatment in both is decorative and they lack the dynamic immediacy of the Gutman miniature.

May Lukens Swietochowski in [Swietochowski and Carboni 1994]

Notes:

1. M. S. Simpson. The Illustration of an Epic: The Earliest Shahnama Manuscripts. New York, 1979, nos. 91 (Chester Beatty Library, Ms. 104.30), 92 (Albright-Knox Gallery, 35:15.4).

Ph. Walter Schulz, Leipzig, Germany (by 1914); Professor O. Moll, Düsseldorf, Germany ; Monroe C. Gutman, New York (by 1929–d. 1974; bequeathed to MMA)

New York. The Hagop Kevorkian Special Exhibitions Gallery, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Illustrated Poetry and Epic Images: Persian Painting of the 1330s and 1340s," February 1–May 1, 1994, no. 30.

Schulz, Ph. Walter. Die Persisch-Islamische Miniaturmalerei. Vol. vols. I, II. Leipzig: Hiersemann, 1914. vol. 1, pp. 74–75.

Masuya, Tomoko. "The Condition of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Small Shahnama and the Reconstruction of its Text." In Poetry and Epic Images, edited by Marie Lukens Swietochowski, and Stefano Carboni. New York, 1994. pp. 129–45.

Swietochowski, Marie, Stefano Carboni, Tomoko Masuya, and Alexander H. Morton. Illustrated Poetry and Epic Images : Persian Painting of the 1330s and 1340s. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994. no. 30, pp. 107–8, ill. p. 107 (b/w).