Kimon Evan Marengo
Ahriman-Goebbels, disguised as Zahhak-Hitler’s cook, causes serpents with the faces of Mussolini and Tojo to grow out of his shoulders1942

Not on view

Illustrated Persian manuscript page with multi-figure narrative scene: a turbaned ruler with two serpents at his shoulders sits enthroned while figures kneel before him, with Persian script above

Artist or Maker: Kimon Evan Marengo
Egypt, 1904-1988
Title: Ahriman-Goebbels, disguised as Zahhak-Hitler’s cook, causes serpents with the faces of Mussolini and Tojo to grow out of his shoulders
Date Made: 1942
Medium: Offset lithograph on paper
Dimensions: Image: 11 15/16 × 8 in. (30.32 × 20.32 cm) Primary support: 13 1/2 × 9 in. (34.29 × 22.86 cm)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by Shidan Taslimi
Accession Number: M.2016.180.1
Classification: Prints
Collecting Area: Art of the Middle East: Contemporary
Curatorial 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.
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.
Gonnella, Julia, and Christoph Rauch, editors. Heroic Times: a Thousand Years of the Persian Book of Kings. Munich: Edition Minerva, 2012.
Copyright: © Estate of Kimon (Kem) Evan Marengo

Kimon Evan Marengo
Ahriman-Goebbels, disguised as Zahhak-Hitler’s cook, causes serpents with the faces of Mussolini and Tojo to grow out of his shoulders1942

Not on view

Artist or Maker: Kimon Evan Marengo
Egypt, 1904-1988
Title: Ahriman-Goebbels, disguised as Zahhak-Hitler’s cook, causes serpents with the faces of Mussolini and Tojo to grow out of his shoulders
Date Made: 1942
Medium: Offset lithograph on paper
Dimensions: Image: 11 15/16 × 8 in. (30.32 × 20.32 cm) Primary support: 13 1/2 × 9 in. (34.29 × 22.86 cm)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by Shidan Taslimi
Accession Number: M.2016.180.1
Classification: Prints
Collecting Area: Art of the Middle East: Contemporary
Curatorial 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.
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.
Gonnella, Julia, and Christoph Rauch, editors. Heroic Times: a Thousand Years of the Persian Book of Kings. Munich: Edition Minerva, 2012.