Chinese lion and kylin combat

Unknown

Chinese lion and kylin combat. In a writhing tangle of limbs, two creatures fight each other, with golden flames rippling from their bodies. They are supernatural beasts borrowed from Chinese mythology. Real animal fights were part of public entertainment in the grand square (maydan) of Safavid Isfahan, but there is a longer art history to this sort of image. Writing in the late 1590s, the chief court artist Sadiqi Beg Afshar (died 1610) praised animal combat designs as the best way to show an artist’s skill. He urged younger artists to aim for a powerful and original composition. Every limb must be engaged in the fight, in the ‘give and take’ (giroft-o-gir) of the struggle. Album folio, colours and gold on paper, mounted on card, painting of Chinese-style mythical lion fighting a kylin, with illuminated corners, within ruled borders on gold-flecked dark blue frame, all mounted on dark blue card album page with gold-painted foliate scrollwork, blank blue card verso, painting unsigned, Isfahan, Iran, c. 1650-1700.