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Persian

Joseph and Potiphar's Wife Zulayka, early 1500s

Now On View

Description

Maker

Culture

Persian

Title

Joseph and Potiphar's Wife Zulayka

Year

early 1500s

Medium

Ink, watercolor, and gold on paper

Materials/Techniques

Materials

Supports

Dimensions

18.7 x 10.8 cm (7 3/8 x 4 5/16 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

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

Place

Iran; Central Asia

Type

Credit

Museum Appropriation Fund

Object Number

17.497

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Text, Paratext, and Images

September 1, 2020 - July 24, 2021

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]

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in the public domain (CC0 1.0). This object is Joseph and Potiphar's Wife Zulayka with the accession number of 17.497. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.