Artwork Page for The merchant’s daughter gives birth to a son as a result of eating out of the box. The clever child recognizes the false gems from true, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Twenty-third Night

Details / Information for The merchant’s daughter gives birth to a son as a result of eating out of the box. The clever child recognizes the false gems from true, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Twenty-third Night

The merchant’s daughter gives birth to a son as a result of eating out of the box. The clever child recognizes the false gems from true, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Twenty-third Night

c. 1560

Mughal India, court of Akbar

(reigned 1556–1605)
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Medium
gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
Measurements
Overall: 20.3 x 14 cm (8 x 5 1/2 in.); Painting only: 7.8 x 10.1 cm (3 1/16 x 4 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry 1962.279.161.b
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
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Did You Know?

The child is named Ibn al-Ghaib meaning, “the son of an invisible man.”

Description

On the left, a group of merchants argue with a young boy over the veracity of their goods. The boy is a child of fate, miraculously born to a virgin after she ate the remains of a mysterious skull. The box containing the skull sits on the carpet between the virgin and her mother.
A vertically oriented paper depicts rows of black inked Persian script in the upper half. The lower half features a scene against a purple floral background of people with light to medium-light skin tones in green, orange, purple, and blue clothes. On the right, two women sit cross-legged, facing each other on a blue and yellow rug, a brown box between them. On the left, four people kneel on a greenish gray, brick-patterned ground.

The merchant’s daughter gives birth to a son as a result of eating out of the box. The clever child recognizes the false gems from true, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Twenty-third Night

c. 1560

Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605)

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