Material Object
In this part, I included a Manuscript from Iran as the main object for analysis, a woodcut from Germany and a hairpin from China as side objects. I will focused on the appearance of these objects and analyze the images of dragons contained in them.
The major object I chose is a graph on a medieval manuscript from Iran, ca.1340.It is drawn by smearing ink, opaque water color, gold and silver on paper. It is beautifully made and colorful. The story of this picture, like the story of Sekandar, comes from Shahnama. It tells the story of The Iranian prince, Gushtasp, who fights a dragon at Mount Saqila in order to win the Hand of Caesar's Youngest Daughter. Though the same story of the hero fighting the dragon, Gushtasp's story is slightly different from Sekandar's. Gushtasp, clad in armor and with his horse by his side, is fighting alone with a sword in his hand. The dragon in the painting is suffering from the blow of Gushtasp, its head is full of blood, its body is twisted like a snake, its mouth is wide open, its extremely long tongue and its mouth is full of fangs, its two arms are raised in the air, the image is very frightening. As we can see, the dragon is not as big as the dragon described in Sekandar's story, but it is clearly a formidable enemy to be reckoned with. The painting uses red as a background to heighten the anxious atmosphere of battle. Dragons occupy two-thirds of the frame, while Gushtasp occupies a small corner on the edge. This painting fully demonstrates Gushtasp's courage to fight the dragon, depicts the heroic image of Gushtasp, and gives us a deeper understanding of the monster image of "dragon" in literature.
The second object I chose about dragon is a woodcut from Germany, ca.1504. It was about Saint George and the dragon he defeated. Although this object has no relation to Beowulf or Shahnameh, it tells the same story of a hero defeating a dragon. In this work, the hero Saint George is riding on a white horse, holding a spear and sticking it into the mouth of the dragon. The overall image is very heroic. There’s a person with crown on his head behind Saint George, which shows that he is protecting his kingdom from the dragon’s attack. The dragon crouched beneath him, looking like the vanquished. The dragon had two wings on its back, horns on its head, and sharp claws. Next to it is a line of bones, apparently of a human it ate, suggesting that it was a terrifying man-eater. This work gives us a glimpse of the scene when the dragon is defeated by the hero, and confirms the idea that dragons often appeared in literature in the middle ages as evil monsters defeated by the brave.
The third object I chose about dragon is a hairpin from China, ca.907. This craft from the Tang Dynasty is made of silver and glass and is beautifully made. Its head is an open mouth of the dragon, a dignified face, eyes. There are many patterns carved on the body of the hairpin, showing the delicacy and superb production level. Such exquisite ornaments, apparently not ordinary people can have in the home. As we can see, the Chinese dragon on the hairpin does not have a very long tail or wings. Instead, it looks more like a snake, but its head is a fierce beast. It also suggests that our dragon image represents something quite different in China than it does in European countries. In Europe, the dragon was a monster, representing disaster, power and terror. While in China, dragon is a kind of divine animal, representing nobility, imperial power and good luck. In ancient China, the dragon was the symbol of the emperor, and its image was widely used in the palace decoration and ornaments of aristocrats. It is interesting that the symbolic meaning of dragon varies greatly in different regions due to regional cultural differences.