The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 18, 2022

The Parrot Addresses Khujasta at the Beginning of the Twentieth Night, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot)

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: 7.1 x 10.1 cm (2 13/16 x 4 in.)

Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry 1962.279.143.a

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

Khujasta is wearing an ivory-peg earring.

Description

Tuti the parrot begins telling Khujasta a story about the daughter of a pious man who turned down three suitors, so she could follow religious pursuits. She stands outside her bed chamber, where a low table has stacked red water jugs, and a dish with ingredients to make paan. The golden ewer and basin are for handwashing.

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, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1976. p. 120
Chandra, Pramod, and Daniel J. Ehnbom. The Cleveland Tuti-Nama Manuscript and the Origins of Mughal Painting. [Cleveland]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1976. p. 79, 120
Nakhshabī, Z̤iyāʼ al-Dīn, and Muhammed Ahmed Simsar, translator and editor. Tales of a Parrot = The Cleveland Museum of Art's Ṭūṭīnāma. Cleveland, OH: The Museum, 1978. Trans. pp. 135-139
Seyller, John. “Overpainting in the Cleveland T̤ūtīnāma.” Artibus Asiae 52, no. 3/4 (1992): 283-318. p. 315 www.jstor.org
Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1962.279.143.a