Unknown Maker, Persian

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]