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Lot Essay
The inscription lower left says be-zir-e an do nun (Underneath those two nuns). This is from Jami's Yusuf and Zulaykha, in the description of Zulaykha's beauty. He describes her eyebrows as two "inverted nuns". This confirms the subject of the painting as Zulaykha.
This is a lovely study of a beautiful lady, even if she does not look as happy as we tend to imagine her. It obviously depicts Zulaykha early on in the story when not only is she young and beautiful, but she is not managing to attract Yusuf despite obviously being dressed in the height of fashion. Even at a time when many clothes were very ostentatious this coat must have stood out. It is extremely rare to see such a textile depicted so accurately in a painting (Jennifer M. Scarce, 'The Textiles of 16th century Safavid Dress - Their Interpretation in the Illustrations of Contemporary Manuscripts', in Jon Thompson (ed.), Carpets and Textiles of the Iranian World, 1400-1700, Oxford, 2010 ).
The design on the coat clearly has two different figures, one kneeling facing one standing, flanked by meandering foliage, with the figures executed on a very large scale. A very similar arrangement is known on a famous polychrome Safavid velvet of which a small number of panels is known, the best of which are in the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha (Jon Thompson, Silk, 13th-18th centuries, Treasures from the Museum of Islamic Art, Qatar, Doha, 2004, no.7, pp.36-37). The design of this cloth must have been very similar if not quite identical. It is probable however that it was a bichromatic cloth that was used. There is a Safavid bichromatic figural velvet in the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, Smithsonian Institution, gift of friends of Louisa Bellinger (Carol Beir (ed.), Woven from the Soul, Spun from the Heart, exhibition catalogue, Washington D.C., 1987, no.34, pp.60-61 and 200-201). Another velvet woven in the same two colours as those found here, but reversed so that the figures (in that case mounted huntsmen) are white on a blue ground, is in the Musée des Tissues, Lyon (Armen Tokatlian, Soies de Paradis, Lyon, 2008, no.23, pp.70-71). It seems probable that the original coat, so closely observed by our artist, was of velvet, of a design very similar indeed to that of the panels in Qatar, but executed in just the two colours shown.
This is a lovely study of a beautiful lady, even if she does not look as happy as we tend to imagine her. It obviously depicts Zulaykha early on in the story when not only is she young and beautiful, but she is not managing to attract Yusuf despite obviously being dressed in the height of fashion. Even at a time when many clothes were very ostentatious this coat must have stood out. It is extremely rare to see such a textile depicted so accurately in a painting (Jennifer M. Scarce, 'The Textiles of 16th century Safavid Dress - Their Interpretation in the Illustrations of Contemporary Manuscripts', in Jon Thompson (ed.), Carpets and Textiles of the Iranian World, 1400-1700, Oxford, 2010 ).
The design on the coat clearly has two different figures, one kneeling facing one standing, flanked by meandering foliage, with the figures executed on a very large scale. A very similar arrangement is known on a famous polychrome Safavid velvet of which a small number of panels is known, the best of which are in the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha (Jon Thompson, Silk, 13th-18th centuries, Treasures from the Museum of Islamic Art, Qatar, Doha, 2004, no.7, pp.36-37). The design of this cloth must have been very similar if not quite identical. It is probable however that it was a bichromatic cloth that was used. There is a Safavid bichromatic figural velvet in the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, Smithsonian Institution, gift of friends of Louisa Bellinger (Carol Beir (ed.), Woven from the Soul, Spun from the Heart, exhibition catalogue, Washington D.C., 1987, no.34, pp.60-61 and 200-201). Another velvet woven in the same two colours as those found here, but reversed so that the figures (in that case mounted huntsmen) are white on a blue ground, is in the Musée des Tissues, Lyon (Armen Tokatlian, Soies de Paradis, Lyon, 2008, no.23, pp.70-71). It seems probable that the original coat, so closely observed by our artist, was of velvet, of a design very similar indeed to that of the panels in Qatar, but executed in just the two colours shown.