About This Artwork
The Bowman, frontispiece from The Epic of Kings, Stories Retold from Firdusi1882
Etching in black on cream wove paper
187 x 137 mm (image); 197 x 147 mm (plate); 298 x 229 mm (sheet)
Gift of Dorothy Braude Edinburg to the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection, 1991.612
Prints and Drawings
Not on Display
This etching is one of two prints that Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema made to illustrate Helen Zimmern’s 19th-century translation of the great Persian epic poem Shahnameh (The King’s Book) by Firdusi from around A.D. 1000. Consisting of some 60,000 verses, the Shahnameh recounts the mythical and historical past of greater Iran, beginning with the creation of the world and the introduction of arts and civilization. It concludes with the Arab conquest of Persia.