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Bay 11 - Joseph (Part II)
(All images © Dr Stuart Whatling)
Index to the panels:
01 - Signature panel; man with cup and wine jug
02 - Signature panel; drapers with their shears (?)
03 - Signature panel; man with compasses

04 - The prison overseer puts Joseph in charge
05 - Joseph distributing food to the other prisoners
06 - Joseph sleeps alongside Paraoh's baker and cup-bearer

07 - The baker and cup-bearer ask Joseph to interpret their dreams
08 - The baker's dream (birds stealing bread from his basket)
10 - Joseph interpreting the dreams?
09 - As foreseen by Joseph, Paraoh's cup-bearer is released and re-instated

12 - Pharaoh dreaming
11 - Pharaoh's dream; the fat kine
13 - Pharaoh's dream; the thin kine
14 - Pharaoh and his wife at dinner
15 - Pharaoh's cup-bearer, now restored to his former position
16 - On Pharaoh's orders, Joseph is released from prison
17 - Joseph explains Pharaoh's dream to him

18 - Joseph, as overseer of Egypt, directing operations
19 - The chaff of the winnowed corn is cast into the river
20 - Jacob sees the chaff in the river and knows there is corn in Egypt

21 - The finding of Joseph's silver cup (panel 1 of 3)
22 - The finding of Joseph's silver cup (panel 2 of 3)
23 - The finding of Joseph's silver cup (panel 3 of 3)
24 - Joseph's brothers return to the city? (panel 1 of 2)
25 - Joseph's brothers return to the city? (panel 2 of 2)
26 - Joseph's brothers?
27 - Jacon departing from Canaan?
28/29/30 - Joseph's brothers bring news of Joseph to their father Jacob
31 - The family reunited; Jacob embracing his son Joseph

Overview:
Continuation of the story of the Patriarch Joseph, following directly on from bay 09.

Another curate's egg, with some touching narrative details struggling to be seen amongst an overly fussy layout. The ambitious arrangement of the medallions clashes with the 3x12 square grid armature - and where they narrative panels span the ferramenta the artist has often been left with dead space. The choice of scenes also sometimes strange in some cases.

For a detailed discussion of some other visualisations of the 'prison dreams' sub-plot in Genesis 40 (Panels 06-10), examined from a narratological viewpoint, see chapter 8.b of my thesis. This window doesn't feature in that discussion (although the sculpted version in the south portal does) for the simple reason that final submission deadlines were looming when I wrote that chapter - and I didn't have the time to work on these images. It's a little embarassing that it has taken me nearly six years to get around to it!

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