Painting in Bustan
At the end of the 15th century, the Timurid ruler Sultan Husayn Bayqara had a splendid court in the city of Herat, in present-day Afghanistan. He commissioned the manufacturing of an illustrated manuscript of the Bustan or “Orchard”, a book of counsel written by the Persian poet Sa’di two centuries before. For this manuscript, the master painter Kamal al-Din Bihzad made a painting to illustrate the anecdote of the seduction of Yusuf, in which he depicted Zulaykha chasing Yusuf from room to room in a labyrinth-like palace.
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Yusuf seduced by Zulaykha in a fairytale palace
Verhaal door Gabrielle van den Berg.A man with a fiery halo, a woman grabbing at his dress in a luxurious building with many doors and stairs. The man is the virtuous Yusuf, sold into slavery in Egypt. The woman is the Egyptian lady Zulaykha, who is madly in love with him. She has locked him inside her palace and shamelessly forces herself upon him, begging him to follow her in sin. Will she succeed? The Persian text intricately woven into the painting ends with Yusuf’s despair – if only we could turn the page. Is this a 15th century depiction of an all too familiar stereotype, male virtue tainted by female deceit? Yes and no: and this painting, inadvertently or on purpose, reflects precisely that.