Demotte Shahnameh

The Great Mongol Shahnameh, also known as the Demotte Shahnameh or Great Ilkhanid Shahnama, is an illustrated manuscript of the Shahnameh (also rendered "Shahnama"), the national epic of Greater Iran. It is the oldest surviving illustrated manuscript of the Shahnameh, probably dating to the 1330s, and in its original form, which has not been recorded, was probably planned to consist of about 280 folios with 190 illustrations, bound in two volumes, although it is thought it was never completed. It is the largest early book in the tradition of the Persian miniature, in which it is "the most magnificent manuscript of the fourteenth century", "supremely ambitious, almost awe-inspiring", and "has received almost universal acclaim for the emotional intensity, eclectic style, artistic mastery and grandeur of its illustrations".

It was produced in the context of the Il-khanid court ruling Persia as part of the Mongol Empire, about a century after their conquest, and just as the dynasty was about to collapse. It remained in Persia until the early 20th century, when it was broken up in Europe by the dealer George Demotte, and now exists as 57 individual pages, many significantly tampered with, in a number of collections around the world.

Like other Persian manuscripts, it uses paper. Excluding blank margins, the pages are 41 by 29 cm, with the text in six columns of 31 lines where not interrupted by the miniatures. These mostly take the full width of the page, and are placed at various heights within it. None are full page. Some miniatures use irregular "stepped" shapes to suit the subject. Given the history of the manuscript (see below), the usual system of numbering by folios cannot be applied.

The style, technique and artistic quality of the miniatures are highly variable; it has been suggested that different artists were responsible for them, but attempts to assign the miniatures to different hands have not achieved consensus. There seems to be experimentation in several respects. Some miniatures are paintings in ink lines and coloured washes, others use opaque watercolour, in a range of palettes. Some pigments have not lasted well. The miniatures have elements derived from both Chinese and (less often) Western traditions; for example the mourners of Iskandar draw from Christian depictions of the Lamentation of Christ, and reminiscences of several other standard scenes from the Life of Christ in art appear in other miniatures. Even costumes are highly variable: 37 styles of hat have been found, and 8 of lapels.

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