ICMA in Washington DC
Exhibition tour of An Epic of Kings: The Great Mongol Shahnama
Friday 6 December 2024, in person
1:30–3pm ET
National Museum of Asian Art, Washington, DC
Register HERE
Iskandar and the talking tree (detail), folio from the Great Mongol Shahnama (Book of kings), Iran, probably Tabriz, Ilkhanid dynasty, ca. 1330, ink, color, and gold on paper, National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, Freer Collection, Purchase—Charles Lang Freer Endowment, F1935.23
The Great Mongol Shahnama is the most celebrated of all medieval Persian manuscripts. Considered Iran’s national epic, the Shahnama (Book of Kings) was completed by the poet Firdawsi in 1010. The copy known as the Great Mongol Shahnama was produced three hundred years later, commissioned by a ruler of the Ilkhanid dynasty, a branch of the Mongol Empire. Between the manuscript’s covers, art, power, and history intertwined. An Epic of Kings presents twenty-five folios from this now dismantled manuscript alongside contemporaneous works from China, the Mediterranean, and the Latin West, highlighting the cosmopolitan nature of the Ilkhanid empire.
For more information on the exhibition, click HERE.
You are invited to join other ICMA Members and area medievalists for a tour led by exhibition curator Simon Rettig (Associate Curator for the Arts of the Islamic World, National Museum of Asian Art) on Friday 6 December 2024 at 1:30pm. Drinks to follow courtesy of the ICMA.
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
1050 Independence Ave., SW
Washington, DC
Meet on Floor B1 at the bottom of the stairs, in front of the entrance to the exhibition in Galleries 23 and 24.
This gathering is informal:
Attendees are responsible for their own travel bookings. Admission to the exhibition site is free.
The purpose of this event is to introduce ICMA members and medievalists from the area to one another, to strengthen the social and professional ties in our community, and to celebrate our mutual interest in medieval art, while exploring the exhibition together.
Organized by Michelle C. Wang, Georgetown University, and Matthew Westerby, National Gallery of Art.
For questions, please email icma@medievalart.org
Register HERE