A Lion Attacking a Bull at Persepolis
| Support Type: | Paper |
| Paint Type: | Ink |
| Current Location: | Current Location: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Accession Number: 2019.116) |
| Location History: | The manuscript was created in Qajar Iran in 1838, presented to Muhammad Shah Qajar, later owned by Rudolf Gelpke, sold through Sam Fogg in London in 2017, and acquired by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in 2019, where it is currently held. |
This ink drawing is made by Ahmad Naqqash, an Iranian artist, and its title is A Lion Attacking a Bull at Persepolis. It is one page from a old manuscript of 1838 called the Persian Travelogue. The manuscript is about a trip in the middle of 1830s through the Fars region, which is in the south west of Iran. The trip was lead by Louise de la Marinierre, a French teacher who teach the Qajar princes in Tabriz. He went with Naqqash and a scribe to write and draw the old ruins from the Achaemenid and Sasanian times. This page show a famous stone carving at Persepolis where a lion is biting a bull on its back part. In ancient Persian art this picture was a symbol of the kings power and also the change of seasons. Naqqash drawed it with black ink and his lines are strong and clear. The most interesting thing is that where the original stone was broken, he did not try to draw it again. He just left that places empty. Because of this empty space the picture looks little bit scary and like its floating in the air. On the next page there is beautiful Persian calligraphy which explain the scene. At the end, this work is a rare mix of two cultures. The idea of the trip came from a French teacher, but it was done by Iranian people, and then it was given to Mohammad Shah Qajar. It shows that Iranians were discovering their own ancient history again.