Contents:
THE COURT OF GAYUMARS
Nancy DemerdashThe ShahnamaThis sumptuo page, The Court of Gayumars (also spelled Kayumars— see top of page, tails below and large image here), om an illumated mancript of the Shahnama (Book of Kgs)—an epic poem scribg the history of kgship Persia (what is now Iran). As wh many of the workshops of early morn Wt Asia, producg a page such as the Court of Gayumars often entailed the ntributns of many artists. It was then when Gayumars beme the Kg of the World.
Seated a cross-legged posn, as if levatg wh this richly vegetal and mountao landspe, Kg Gayumars ris above his urtiers, who are gathered around at the base of the patg. Acrdg to legend, Kg Gayumars was the first kg of Persia, and he led at a time when people clothed themselv exclively leopard pelts, as both the text and the reprented subjects’ speckled garments dite.Perched on cliffs bi the Kg are his son, Siyamak (left, standg), and grandson Hhang (right, seated).[11] Onlookers n be seen to surreptly peer out om the scraggly, blossomg branch onto Kg Gayumars om the upper left and right. 12-30.Sheila Canby affirms Stuart Cary Welch’s timate that took Sultan Muhammad and his workshop three years to plete the Court of Gayumars illtratn.
Roxburgh, “On the Brk of Tragedy: The Court of Gayumars om Shah Tahmasp’s Shahnama (‘Book of Kgs’), Sultan Muhammad,” Christopher Dell, ed., What Mak a Masterpiece: Artists, Wrers and Curators on the World’s Greatt Works of Art (London; New York: Tham & Hudson, 2010), pp.