Drawings & Watercolours
Dragon in foliage with lion and phoenix heads
MetalworkDrawing
Details
- Author / creator
- Sahkulu (Turkish, active 1526–56)
- Object type
- Drawing
- Date or period
- mid-1500s
- Dimensions summary
- Sheet: 17.3 × 40.2 cm
- Place of origin
- Ottoman Turkey
- Acquisition method
- Purchase
- Credit line
- Purchased with the Art Fund grant and Friends of the Ashcombe Museum, 1944
- Paper / support
- Laid paper
- Image rights
- Public domain (CC0)
About this object
A dragon lunges toward a pearl in the form of a seal inscribed with a verse from the Koran: “And I commit my case unto God” (40:44). In his front claw, the dragon grasps two flowering branches that magically produce a variety of blooms, including a lion that bites the dragon’s neck and a phoenix, who competes for the pearl.
Sahkulu was trained by Persian artists, as were many artists of Mughal India during the 1500s. He joined the Ottoman imperial painting atelier in Istanbul in 1526 and became the head in 1545.
Materials and technique
Ink, gum tempera, and gold on paper
Signature and marks
[stamp between dragon and phoenix, in Naskh script] And I commit my case unto God. [Qur’an 40:44]
