The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of July 2, 2022

The daughter-in-law of the king of Banaras, charmed by the music of a vagabond, comes down to meet him, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Sixteenth Night

c. 1560

Part of a set. See all set records

Mughal India, court of Akbar

(reigned 1556–1605)

Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper

Overall: 20.3 x 14 cm (8 x 5 1/2 in.); Painting only: 11.2 x 9.9 cm (4 7/16 x 3 7/8 in.)

Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry 1962.279.119.b

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

The whereabouts of the previous folio, probably depicting the parrot addressing Khujasta on the sixteenth night, are unknown.

Description

A ladder connects the daughter-in-law’s chambers to the courtyard below, where the vagabond kneels beneath a tree, a stringed instrument called a rebab in hand, mouth open in song. Because her husband is unpleasant and ill-tempered, the woman falls in love with the musician. The damage to the right side of this page was probably repaired in the early 1800s.

Provenance
Estate of Breckenridge Long, Bowie, MD, 1959; Harry Burke Antiques, Philadelphia, PA; Bernard Brown, Milwaukee, WI;
Citations
Chandra, Pramod, and Daniel J. Ehnbom. The Cleveland Tuti-Nama Manuscript and the Origins of Mughal Painting. [Cleveland]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1976. p. 116
Seyller, John. “Overpainting in the Cleveland T̤ūtīnāma.” Artibus Asiae 52, no. 3/4 (1992): 283-318. p. 314 www.jstor.org
Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1962.279.119.b