The dream of Zulaykha, from the Amber Album (c. 1670): Art, History and Details
The dream of Zulaykha, from the Amber Album at the Cleveland Museum of Art: c. 1670, Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper. Explore the work's context, creator attribution and collection history.
The dream of Zulaykha, from the Amber Album (c. 1670) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.
The work and its context
The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:
In Islamic texts, as in the Hebrew and Christian Old Testament traditions, Zulaykha is the unnamed wife of Potiphar, a wealthy Egyptian. This scene is from a popular Persian poem that recounts the story of Joseph and Zulaykha as a mystical romance, and describes her visionary dreams of a beautiful lover. In this painting we see the luxuriously dressed Zulaykha asleep on a terrace, reclining on ornate pillows as a vision of her love, Joseph, appears before her. He is illuminated by radiant light cast down by angels emerging from the dark night clouds.
Object facts
- Title: The dream of Zulaykha, from the Amber Album
- Date: c. 1670
- Culture: India, Mughal, 17th century
- Type: Painting
- Technique: Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
- Dimensions: Page: 32 x 24.4 cm (12 5/8 x 9 5/8 in.)
- Collection: Indian Art - Mughal
- Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
- Accession number: 2013.332
A detail from the museum
Joseph, the man of Zulaykha’s dreams, is dressed as a Mughal prince.
Collection credit
Gift in honor of Madeline Neves Clapp; Gift of Mrs. Henry White Cannon by exchange; Bequest of Louise T. Cooper; Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund; From the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection
Further reading listed by the museum
- Francesca Galloway Gallery. Treasures from India. London: Francesca Galloway, 2006.
- Aitken, Molly Emma. The Intelligence of Tradition in Rajput Court Painting. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010.
- Mace, Sonya Rhie, Mohsen Ashtiany, Catherine Glynn, Pedro Moura Carvalho, Marcus Fraser, and Ruby Lal. Mughal Paintings: Art and Stories: the Cleveland Museum of Art. London: D Giles Limited, 2016.
View the collection record
See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.
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