Persian painted poems bring an ancient world to life

Documenting the history of the Shahnameh, or “Book of Kings”, this landmark display features almost 100 illustrations from rare manuscripts spanning nearly eight centuries.

Artworks inspired by this poem, which is regarded as Iran’s ‘national epic’, have been gathered from the British Museum, the Bodleian Library and the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle, making Epic of the Persian Kings: The Art of Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh the most comprehensive display of its kind ever shown in Britain.

Visitors will have a unique opportunity to explore history as seen through the eyes of Persian painters and the poet Ferdowsi, who completed this literary masterpiece in 1010 AD.

Power, love and loyalty are all explored in this epic, which stretches back to the time of the mythical kings of the 4th century BC. Dragons and princes, battles and games of polo are depicted in luminously rich illustration, alongside ornate north Indian armour, daggers, ceramics and even an ornately tiled 19th-century table-top.

Timothy Potts, Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, said: “It is impossible to overstate the significance of Ferdowsi’s Book of Kings, which remains, a millennium after its completion, one of the most popular texts of secular poetry in Southwest Asia.”

“In its ambition, scope and spectacular range of displays, this exhibition at the Fitzwilliam is truly a landmark and for many visitors will be a revelatory introduction to the Shahnameh and its world.”

The free exhibition runs until 9 January 2011 and a programme of talks, concerts of Persian music, films and theatrical performances and other events has been arranged in conjunction with the display to bring the tales from the Book of Kings to life. More details can be found at the Fitzwilliam Museum’s own website: http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/whatson/exhibitions/shahnameh/