Writing on the Image

This chapter takes a close look at the semantic richness and transgressive potential of the Cairo Bustan’s illustrated frontispiece, a double painting opening the manuscript and representing a celebration in a royal palace. While the double painting belongs to the tradition of the Persian royal frontispiece, whose main task was to reflect the royal patron’s glory, it also considerably departs from it. In the painting, the king is marginalized, pushed to the periphery by a host of details and scenes. Visual abundance derails the viewer’s attention and suggests multiple lines of interpretation. The frontispiece can be read as a mystical scene, a parody of royal portraiture, and a self-reflective device, shifting our attention from patron to painting.