The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 26, 2024

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

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

c. 1560
(reigned 1556–1605)
gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
Overall: 20.3 x 14 cm (8 x 5 1/2 in.); Painting only: 10.1 x 9.8 cm (4 x 3 7/8 in.)
Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry 1962.279.154.a
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

The parrot’s story is set in Kerman, a province of southeast Iran.

Description

On the 22nd night after her husband’s departure, the parrot advises his mistress Kujastha that when she meets her lover that night she should use her best judgment and manners and not allow herself to be laughed at like the wife of the amir, a local ruler. When Khujasta asked about what happened to her, the parrot related a story about the amir, his jester, and their unfaithful wives. This artist continued to use flat planes of colors and patterns characteristic of Indian painting before the Mughals. Experimentation with techniques to indicate depth and spatial recession––a new trend early in the reign of Akbar––can be seen in the tilted planes of the birdcage and the shading at the edges of the doorways.
  • ?–1959
    Estate of Breckinridge Long [1881–1958], Bowie, MD
    1959–1962?
    (Harry Burke Antiques, Philadelphia, PA)
    1959?–1962
    (Bernard Brown Agency, Milwaukee, WI, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Purchased with funds from Mrs. A. Dean [Helen Wade Greene] Perry)
    1962–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    Provenance Footnotes
    1 Samuel Miller Breckinridge Long (May 16, 1881–September 26, 1958) was an American diplomat and politician, who served in the administrations of Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Long is largely remembered for his obstructionist role as the Assistant Secretary of State responsible for granting refugee visas during World War II. His interests included the collection of antiques, paintings and American ship models. He maintained a stable of Thoroughbred race horses and was a director of the Laurel Park Racecourse in Laurel, Maryland, and he enjoyed fox hunting, fishing, and sailing.
  • Chandra, Pramod, and Daniel J. Ehnbom. The Cleveland Tuti-Nama Manuscript and the Origins of Mughal Painting. [Cleveland]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1976. pp. 79, 122
    Seyller, John. “Overpainting in the Cleveland T̤ūtīnāma.” Artibus Asiae 52, no. 3/4 (1992): 283-318. p. 316 www.jstor.org
  • Indian Gallery 242b Rotation – November 2016. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (November 7, 2016-April 10, 2017).
  • {{cite web|title=The Parrot Addresses Khujasta at the Beginning of the Twenty-second Night, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot)|url=false|author=|year=c. 1560|access-date=26 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1962.279.154.a