The Great Mongol Shahnama: Materials and Techniques
The Great Mongol Shahnama is an extraordinary illustrated manuscript of Firdawsi’s Book of Kings, an epic poem composed in 1010 that narrates the history of Iran from the dawn of time to the Arab invasion in the seventh century CE. A masterwork of Islamic painting, this fourteenth-century volume is notable for its large scale and the style of its paintings; however, it was later disbound, and its pages are now dispersed. Examinations of pages have been aided by scientific imaging and analyses to better characterize the broad color palette of these paintings in opaque watercolor, gold, and silver and the changes they have undergone throughout their history.
In this lecture, conservation scientist Matthew Clarke and conservator Emily Jacobson will discuss the detailed investigations that are underway at the Freer and Sackler to learn more about the composition and creation of the fifteen folios held in the museum’s collection.
About the speakers:
Matthew L. Clarke, PhD, has been a conservation scientist at the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art, since 2015. He previously worked at the National Gallery of Art from 2010 to 2015. His research focuses on the use of chemical analyses, primarily spectroscopic and imaging, to understand the composition of and changes in cultural heritage materials. Investigations include the analyses of jades, painted works on paper, metal coatings, and photographic materials.
Emily Klayman Jacobson has been a paper and photographs conservator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art since 2008. She received her BA in art history from Connecticut College in 1984 and her MA in conservation from Buffalo State College in 1991. Emily has previously worked as a conservator at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Emily has been active in the conservation community as chair of the American Institute for Conservation’s Book & Paper Group and as president of the Washington Conservation Guild.
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More information on the Smithsonian’s website.
On the left: Detail, Enthronement of Shah Zav, Folio from a Shahnama (Book of kings) by Firdawsi (d. 1020), Iran, Tabriz, Il-Khanid dynasty, ca. 1330–1340, Ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper, Purchase—Smithsonian Unrestricted Trust Funds, Smithsonian Collections Acquisition Program, and Dr. Arthur M. Sackler, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, S1986.107.