Dragon in Rocky Landscapes
Unknown Artist
17th–18th century
Medium
Ink on paper
Dimensions
Overall: H. 9 3/4 in. (24.8 cm) W. 7 5/8 in. (19.4 cm) Dimensions of painting: H. 6 in. (15.2 cm) W. 5 1/2 in. (14 cm)
Classification
Codices
Department
Islamic Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Richard Ettinghausen, 1975
Accession Number
1975.192.6
Tags
Art Historical Context
Nestled within the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Islamic collection, *Dragon in Rocky Landscapes* a captivating ink-on-paper folio from a 17th–18th century codex, gifted by scholar Richard Ettinghausen in 1975. Measuring just 6 by 5½ inches for the painting itself, this leaf exemplifies the exquisite miniature tradition of Islamic manuscript illumination, likely from Persian or Ottoman workshops. The dragon, a mythical beast coiled amid jagged rocky crags, evokes the fantastical worlds of epic tales like the *Shahnameh*, where such creatures embodied chaos, power, and heroic trials. In Islamic...