As mentioned earlier in the exhibit, the primary artifact we will be examining in order to shed light on differences of depictions of dragons is a folio from the Shahnameh. This folio depicts Rustam, another great hero of the Book of Kings battling a dragon of his own, as part of his third course, or test of valour. The first thing we can make note of looking at this folio is that the script itself seems to be Persian, lending credence to the assertion that is found originally in the Shahnameh. The paper that it is printed on seems to be stained, torn and browned. These different blemishes give it a very aged and ancient feeling, perhaps implying that it may be from a very early printing of the Shahnameh. In the actual image itself that we can see, Rustam is fighting the dragon with a sword and shield. The drawing also seems to be a snapshot in time where Rustam is killing the dragon, as there is something that looks like a blood spurt coming from the dragon’s neck, where Rustam’s sword also seems to be making contact. Rustam also seems to be wearing some kind of armour, lending itself to the idea that he is indeed a hero of the Shahnameh, or at the very least some kind of warrior. With regards to its purpose, the Shahnameh is a collection of stories with huge cultural importance in Iran, and has many other grandiose stories along with the stories of Sekandar and Rustam that we have briefly looked at in this exhibit.

There are two other objects which we will compare and contrast with the folio of Rustam and the passage from the Shahnameh to get a better sense of how depictions of dragons can differ. The first of these additional artifacts we will examine is this statute of Saint George and his dragon. In this statue we can see Saint George with his boot on the throat of the dragon, seemingly being constructed to show the moment in time after he defeats the beast. This statue gives the viewer an entirely different sense of what a dragon should look like compared to the descriptions in the passage. Here, the dragon that Saint George has defeated is seemingly wingless and looks to be about the same size as a human, as it looks similar in stature to Saint George in this depiction. When comparing this dragon to the one that is being fought by Rustam in the folio shown earlier, it also seems less formidable, as Rustam’s dragon certainly seems larger in scale to a human and may indeed have wings, although it is difficult to tell when looking at the folio whether or not it does. Moving now to the final artifact we will look at in this exhibit, its appearance seems to fit more to the description of the dragon in the passage and the other works we mentioned earlier. It certainly seems to fit more closely the contemporary view of what a dragon should look like. It is worth noting that there is no human element to this artifact so we can not get a sense of this particular dragon’s size to the scale of a human like we could with the other artifacts. This dragon is also presenting itself in a much more regal posture than the one we can see being defeated by Saint George, and even the one fighting Rustam. However, this could have more to do with its purpose than anything else. At first look, the silver colouring of the statue, which itself is made of bronze, gives a sense that it was likely associated with wealth in some sense. This idea is confirmed by its description, which says that the sculpture was lifted from the coat of arms of Pope Paul V. With that in mind, we may be able to infer that the dragon was seen as a powerful and regal monster that could be used as a status symbol.