Illuminated folio (recto) from a Gulistan (Rose Garden) of Sa'di (c. 1213–1291)
calligraphy: c. 1475–1500; border: c. 1550
Medium
Gum tempera, ink, gold, and silver on paper
Dimensions
30 × 19 cm · text area: 16.3 × 9.8 cm
Classification
Manuscript
Department
Islamic Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of William Kelly Simpson in memory of his wife Marilyn M. Simpson and her grandparents Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller Jr.
Accession Number
2006.147.a
Tags
About this artwork
Silver and gold paints were used against an indigo blue background to create a fantastic frame for the text of the Gulistan. Meaning “rose bush” in Persian, this text is a collection of anecdotes in both verse and prose. Here, a winged lion chases a winged deer from the upper margins to the lower, where it rends the mythical deer and sends a toothy fox running.