Ahriman-Goebbels, disguised as Zahhak-Hitler’s cook, causes serpents with the faces of Mussolini and Tojo to grow out of his shoulders

Islamic Art Now: Contemporary Art of the Middle East
© Estate of Kimon (Kem) Evan Marengo
My gallery Comment Tag Order Photography*
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Ahriman-Goebbels, disguised as Zahhak-Hitler’s cook, causes serpents with the faces of Mussolini and Tojo to grow out of his shoulders

1942
Prints; posters
Offset lithograph on paper
Image: 11 15/16 × 8 in. (30.32 × 20.32 cm) Primary support: 13 1/2 × 9 in. (34.29 × 22.86 cm)
Purchased with funds provided by Shidan Taslimi (M.2016.180.1)
Not currently on public view

Curator Notes

...
During World War II, as part of an effort to promote popular support for the Allies in Iran, the British government commissioned propaganda posters that utilized a key episode from the Iranian national epic, the Shahnama: the story of the wicked King Zahhak. Here and throughout the series, Hitler is portrayed as the evil Zahhak, who has a pair of snakes growing from his shoulders with the heads of Mussolini and Tojo; the chief minister of Nazi propaganda, Goebbels, is represented as Satan, in the guise of Zahhak-Hitler’s cook.
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Bibliography

  • Gonnella, Julia, and Christoph Rauch, editors. Heroic Times: a Thousand Years of the Persian Book of Kings. Munich: Edition Minerva, 2012.
  • Komaroff, Linda. In the Fields of Empty Days: The Intersection of Past and Present in Iranian Art. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Munich; New York: DelMonico Books-Prestel, 2018.