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Farhad Kills Himself After Hearing the False News of Shirin’s Death
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
A man’s lifeless body is being observed by a group of women. A kneeling woman with a halo and wearing fine garments is Shirin, the beloved of the dead man, Farhad. Farhad cut a canal of milk through a mountain pass as a proof of his love, but on hearing the false news of her demise, he jumped off the mountain and killed himself.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineFarhad Kills Himself After Hearing the False News of Shirin’s Death, c. 1810. Attributed to Amar Das Bhatti (Indian, active 1800s), background by Dana Bhatti (Indian, active 1800s). Gum tempera and gold on paper; page: 29.8 x 19.6 cm (11 3/4 x 7 11/16 in.); miniature: 28.6 x 17.8 cm (11 1/4 x 7 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund, 2018.198
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