The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 20, 2025

Vertically oriented book page with two golden statues sitting cross-legged in a shrine in the upper half and six men with light to medium skin tones in the lower. On our lower right, an enthroned man sits cross-legged while two more men hold a parasol over his head and fan him. Left, three men face the enthroned one, the closest to him kneeling, all against a solid blue background with occasional grass tufts.

The goldsmith and the carpenter inform the king of a dream in which the golden images plan to desert the city for lack of worshippers, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Third Night

c. 1560

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: 16.5 x 10.4 cm (6 1/2 x 4 1/8 in.)
Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry 1962.279.20.a
Location: 242B Indian Painting

Did You Know?

The dark-skinned figure on the left was originally painted in a peach toned complexion that is still visible on his torso.

Description

In this story, a goldsmith and a carpenter plan to steal a city’s idols by convincing the king that they have left on their own. They appear before the king, who addresses them from beneath a parasol in the lower register. The two golden idols sit in a shrine in the upper register.
  • ?–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: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1976. pp. 79, 85.
    Seyller, John. “Overpainting in the Cleveland T̤ūtīnāma.” Artibus Asiae 52, no. 3/4 (1992): 283-318. p.309 www.jstor.org
  • Indian Painting of the 1500s: Continuities and Transformations. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 15, 2025-January 11, 2026).
  • {{cite web|title=The goldsmith and the carpenter inform the king of a dream in which the golden images plan to desert the city for lack of worshippers, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Third Night|url=false|author=|year=c. 1560|access-date=20 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1962.279.20.a