"Yusef Serves for Zulaikha at a Feast", Folio from a Yusuf and Zulaikha of Jami 1550 - 1599

Curator: This vibrantly colored folio, “Yusef Serves for Zulaikha at a Feast,” dates back to between 1550 and 1599. The tempera and watercolours give the miniature a luminous quality, almost gem-like. Editor: My initial impression is how spatially disorienting this piece feels! It’s almost cubist in its stacked perspective, like a stage set built from cardboard. How intentional was that, do you think? Curator: The compressed perspective flattens the narrative and brings the symbolic aspects of each scene into closer relationship, I think. The arrangement focuses attention not so much on realistic depiction as on the unfolding of the story itself, from Jami’s Yusuf and Zulaikha. Editor: Which, of course, emphasizes the materiality of the manuscript page. It's clear that this would have been circulated amongst a relatively small and elite group, to be handled intimately. It makes me think of the highly skilled labor required for each pigment, each precisely placed stroke of tempera… Curator: Precisely! The rich colours would also have carried symbolic weight. Think about the intense blues framing each little tableau, which historically speaks to divine authority, or the servant’s orange robe possibly alluding to earthly desire... Editor: It’s easy to get lost in decoding those symbols, though. Look at the architecture, all the decorative detail pressed into these flattened planes. It’s such a dazzling display of wealth and power – rendered using some quite labour-intensive materials! Curator: Indeed. The miniature distills an entire emotional and psychological drama into a concentrated visual space. It speaks volumes about desire, servitude, and transformation through image and verse, relying heavily on familiar symbolic frameworks to be readable. Editor: It really does foreground how intricately linked are materiality, labour, and representation in conveying ideological and emotional content. Thanks for sharing your expertise! Curator: And thank you for teasing out its relationship to the world it was created in!