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.
Vertically oriented paper with rows of black inked Persian script in the upper half and, in the lower half, a scene against a purple floral background of people with light to medium-light skin tones in green, orange, purple, and blue clothes. On our right, two women sit facing each other on a blue and yellow rug, a brown box between them. Left, four men kneel on a grey, brick-patterned ground, hands raised in discussion.

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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