The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of May 9, 2024
As punishment, the jester’s wife and the Zangi are thrown into fire and the emir’s wife and the mahout are trampled by an elephant, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot), Twenty-second Night
c. 1560
(reigned 1556–1605)
Overall: 20.3 x 14 cm (8 x 5 1/2 in.); Painting only: 10 x 10.1 cm (3 15/16 x 4 in.)
Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry 1962.279.158.b
Location: not on view
Did You Know?
This painting shows features of Persian painting that transferred to India in the early Mughal court.Description
This painting depicts the closing scene of the tale the parrot tells Khujasta on the twenty-second night. He concludes the story by warning his mistress against committing any acts that would cause her to be laughed at and get her into trouble, like the wife of the emir, who is shown here being trampled to death along with her lover, the elephant driver. While in prison the jester caught them having sex on top of the elephant her lover had ridden up to her window. This brazen transgression made the imprisoned jester laugh so hard that the emir was alerted to the illicit affair. In the lower left the jester’s wife and her African lover, the Zangi, are being burned in punishment for their infidelity.- ?–1959Estate of Breckinridge Long [1881–1958], Bowie, MD1959–1962?(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, OHProvenance Footnotes1 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.
- 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).
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Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1962.279.158.b