Shahnameh: Epic of the Persian Kings

The Shahnameh is one of the world's great literary masterpieces and a masterpiece of classical Persian poetry. Iranian-born, New York–based artist Hamid Rahmanian, who was a Shangri La artist in residence in 2015, drew from thousands of historical editions of the Shahnameh, digitally manipulating them into a series of dynamic illustrations that give the epic a new relevance. 
 
Consisting of some 50,000 verses, the Shahnameh was composed by the poet Ferdowsi in the late 10th to early 11th centuries, but its origins trace back much earlier, and it follows the history of the Persian empire from its mythical origins to the end of the Sassanian period in the 7th century.

In 2013, after thousands of hours of work over more than five years, Rahmanian published a critically acclaimed newly illustrated edition of the Shahnameh, reviving once again its significance for a contemporary audience. Intended to make the epic accessible to a new generation of readers, the bold, dynamic illustrations seamlessly update the traditional aesthetics of historic Shahnameh imagery. Rahmanian brilliantly took 15th- to 19th-century Iranian, Mughal Indian, and Ottoman miniature paintings as his source material, transforming them through digital editing into an entirely novel way of illustrating the text. 

HoMA acquired a set of Rahmanian’s digital illustrations in 2015. On view now is a selection of eight works depicting key scenes from the epic poem.  

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Hamid Rahmanian (born 1968). The Night Attack. Iran, 2015. Digital print. Purchase with funds from the Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute, 2015 (2015-18-04)