Glorious Beasts in Persian Painting

Using selections from the Museum’s collection of Persian paintings for inspiration, Conley Harris, an artist and collector of Indian and Persian art, has created six interpretative works depicting a continuing theme in Persian paintings: animals and landscape. Displayed beside the Museum’s 15th- through 17th-century paintings in the Islamic Corridor, “Glorious Beasts in Persian Paintings” emphasizes unique aspects of Persian painting including history, techniques, and traditions. Responding to a 16th-century manuscript depicting a hunting scene, Harris created High-spirited Horseman, shown above, a vibrant painting intended to “simultaneously evoke the original’s elegance and designed confusion…Everything is layered, all the colors are heightened and the action blurred by the raging chaos of battle.”