Ближний Восток и его соседи

g 142 h Firuza Melville Scheherazade forgiven Compared with the Bakst-Fokine finale of the Scheherazade , the standard ver- sion of the original tale as it became known in Europe has a relatively happy ending: King Shahriyar repents, stops threatening to kill his wife every morn- ing; his brother Shahzaman marries Shahrazad’s sister Dunyazad and they all live happily ever after. This would give us a Shakespearean-style finale of a multiple-marriage happy ending of his adventurous comedies. However, in his 1955 visual version of Scheherazade’s triumph ending her torturous three-year life with a maniac and serial killer, van Dongen gives a com- pletely different interpretation of the scene. He calls his painting ‘Scheherazade forgiven’ (1918) as if the innocent woman had done something wrong, apart from entertaining her insane husband for a thousand nights, who by the time they met had murdered more than a thousand virgins immediately after their defloration. In the painting, defenceless in her nakedness, Scheherazade reveals their three children to fully dressed Shahriyar, which makes him suddenly forgive her for Pl. 16. Kees van Dongen. Scheherazade and Shahriyar. (Le livre des mille nuits et une nuit, translated by Joseph-Charles Mardrus, Paris: Fasquelle NRF Gallimard, 1955) Pl. 15. Kees van Dongen. Sheherazade pardonnée. (Le livre des mille nuits et une nuit, translated by Joseph-Charles Mardrus. Paris: Fasquelle NRF Gallimard, 1955)