inscrutable yet distinguishable things that were probably included in many
pictures; shadows of jinns and the Devil and also; the picture of the man’s
stunningly beautiful daughter as she stood beside her father。
“What was the narrative that this representation was meant to embellish
and plete? As I regarded the work; I slowly sensed that the underlying tale
was the picture itself。 The painting wasn’t the extension of a story at all; it was
something in its own right。
“I never forgot the painting that bewildered me so。 I left the palazzo;
returned to the house where I was staying as a guest and pondered the picture
the entire night。 I; too; wanted to be portrayed in this manner。 But; no; that
wasn’t appropriate; it was Our Sultan who ought to be thus portrayed! Our
Sultan ought to be rendered along with everything He owned; with the things
that represented and constituted His realm。 I settled on the notion that a
manuscript could be illustrated according to this idea。
“The Veian virtuoso had made the nobleman’s picture in such a way
that you would immediately know which particular nobleman it was。 If you’d
never seen that man; if they told you to pick him out of a crowd of a thousand
others; you’d be able to select the correct man with the help of that portrait。
The Veian masters