The siege of Arbela in the era of Hulagu Khan, page from a Chingiz-nama (Book of Chingiz Khan) of the Jami al-tavarikh (Compendium of Chronicles) of Rashid al-Din (Persian,1247–1318)
Medium
Gum tempera and gold on paper
Dimensions
38.5 × 25 cm · image: 34 × 20 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
Accession Number
1947.502.a
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
About this artwork
A Mongol conqueror riding a white horse gazes stonily at his defeated West Asian opponent in a scene that took place more than 300 years before this painting was made. By the end of the 1500s there was a new emphasis on creating paintings to accompany historical texts. Visually, the diagonal composition with cityscape at the top of the page—also found among the earliest Mughal paintings—was expanded to include throngs of participants and a startling new naturalism. Painting from the Akbar period...