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The Feast of Sada, from the Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp

Attributed to Sultan Muhammad, ca. 1525. Tabriz, Iran.

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Thirty works are on view at a time, ten to a room. Every day at midnight UTC, the ten that have hung longest go back into storage and ten others come out, so each work hangs for three days and then rests for three. A work always returns to the same place on the same wall.

A Persian manuscript page showing a king and companions seated around a fire on a colorful hillside full of animals, with columns of text below.
Image: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Open Access (CC0). Select it for the full size.

In the Persian Book of Kings, the early king Hushang throws a stone at a serpent, misses, and strikes a rock. A spark flies, and that is how people discovered fire. He holds a feast to celebrate, and that feast is the subject of this page. The king and his companions sit around a blaze on a hillside, while animals of every kind gather in the landscape, from a leopard to deer to small rabbits. The hills are painted in purples, pinks and greens, and the rocks contain hidden faces. It comes from one of the most lavish manuscripts ever made in Iran. Spend long enough and you will keep finding more creatures.

Look closely

  1. Find the fire. Who is closest to it?
  2. Search the rocks for hidden faces.
  3. How many different animals can you count?

While you sit

Everyone has come to see the new fire. Sit near it with them.

Your seat in the galleries: a plum-colored divan with gold-thread cushions, set close to a hearth.

About the work

Title
The Feast of Sada, from the Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp
Artist
Attributed to Sultan Muhammad
Date
ca. 1525
From
Tabriz, Iran
Medium
Opaque watercolor, ink, silver, and gold on paper
Size
Painting:
Rights
Public domain
Image
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Open Access (CC0)
Record
The museum's page for this work

The words on this page were written for the campus, not taken from the museum's label.

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