The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 19, 2024

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

The Parrot Addresses Khujasta at the Beginning of the Twenty-sixth 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: 11.4 x 10.3 cm (4 1/2 x 4 1/16 in.)
Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry 1962.279.179.b
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

The flowering tree entwining the cypress alludes to Khujasta’s desire to embrace her lover.

Description

When the sun, like a saffron-hued frog, plunged into the pond in the west and the moon, like a fish, came out of its snare in the east, Khujasta adorned with many kinds of jewels and bedecked with a variety of gold and silver ornaments went to Tuti to ask permission to leave.
The parrot’s cage seems to hover in midair in the porch of a domed pavilion. The flowering treeentwining the cypress alludes to Khujasta’s desire to embrace her lover. As waterfowl course through the air, the parrot begins his story about the frog king Shapur.
  • ?–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, 127
  • {{cite web|title=The Parrot Addresses Khujasta at the Beginning of the Twenty-sixth Night, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot)|url=false|author=|year=c. 1560|access-date=19 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1962.279.179.b