- Title
- Lion and Sword II
- Date Made
- 1975
- Medium
- Bijar weave
- Dimensions
- 52 13/16 × 78 11/16 in. (134.11 × 199.9 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.2018.118.2
- Collecting Area
- Art of the Middle East: Contemporary
- Curatorial Notes
Parviz Tanavoli has a long-standing fascination with lions, which he has rendered in a variety of media and forms. He began collecting tribal rugs decorated with lions in the early 1970s, and these inspired some of his own work. Here, the combination of lion and sword, which became a state symbol of first the Qajar dynasty and subsequently Pahlavi Iran, also has strong Shi‘ite connotations, as both lion and sword are associated with Imam Ali.
- Selected Bibliography
- 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.
