Unknown Maker, Persian

Joseph and Potiphar's Wife Zulayka

Maker

Unknown Maker, Persian

Culture

Persian

Title

Joseph and Potiphar's Wife Zulayka
Leaf from the book Yousof Va Zoleykha
(یوسف و زلیخا)
by Poet Jaami (جامی)

Year

early 1500s

Medium

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

Materials

gold, ink, watercolor

Supports

Geography

Origin: Iran; Origin: Central Asia

Dimensions

18.7 x 10.8 cm (7 3/8 x 4 1/4 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Inscribed number in ink on label adhered verso, top right: 378

Inscription Text/Poem: The poem in upper side of the folio in Persian:
پی باز آمدن دامن کشیدش
ز سوی پشت پیراهن دریدش
برون رفت از کف آن غم رسیده
بسان غنجه پیراهن دریده
زلیخا زان غرامت سینه زد چاک
جو سایه خویش را افکند بر خاک

Translation: She pulled his skirt for him to return
She tore the back side of his shirt
He pulled away from the hand of that sad driven person
like a torn bud
Zulikha beat her chest at her loss
She dropped herself like a shadow on the soil

(translated by Mohadeseh Salari Sardari, PhD student, Brown University, 2023)

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Museum Appropriation Fund

Object Number

17.497

Type

Exhibition History

Text, Paratext, and Images
Sep 01, 2020 – Jul 24, 2021

Label copy

These two works show the circulation of text through storytelling, and they present narrating, reading, and writing as signifiers of social status.

At the top of the Persian painting at left, a storyteller captivates his audience with a tale that unfolds in the scene below. The story of the attempted seduction of Joseph by Potiphar’s wife is found in the Qur’an, the Hebrew Torah, and many Muslim storybooks from the 1500s.

In the Japanese print at right, made in the 1800s, a woman dressed in the elaborate garments of an aristocrat from the 1300s sits at a desk with writing utensils, surrounded by books. Besides highlighting the importance of reading and writing, this anachronism signifies the high regard for classical poetry in Edo-era Japanese society.

[see also 56.039.34]

Image use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use.

Public Domain This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

Unknown Maker, Persian
Joseph and Potiphar's Wife Zulayka; Leaf from the book Yousof Va Zoleykha (یوسف و زلیخا) by Poet Jaami (جامی) , early 1500s
Ink, watercolor, and gold on paper
18.7 x 10.8 cm (7 3/8 x 4 1/4 inches)
Museum Appropriation Fund 17.497

To request new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.