The Seduction of Yusuf

Zulaykha, wife of the Egyptian official Potiphar, lures the beautiful Yusuf, the Joseph of Genesis and the Qur'an, deep into a palace of locked doors and shuts the last behind them; he breaks away toward the open door at the upper right. Bihzad, the greatest painter of Herat in present-day Afghanistan, turns the tale into a dizzying honeycomb of tilework, staircases and balconies, the architecture itself taut with the drama. The verses come from a mystical poem by Jami. A high point of Persian miniature painting.