The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Vertically oriented book page with Persian script in the upper third and a painting in the lower two thirds depicting three men with light skin tones seated in a cave surrounded by undulating light blue and pink rock formations. They face our left, hands gesturing out towards a brown boulder blocking the exit of the cave. One wears a red robe speckled with gold, another yellow, and the last light blue. Trees speckle the landscape.

The tale of the three men trapped in a cave by a rolling boulder, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Thirty-second Night

c. 1560

attributed to Bihzad

(Persian, active in India mid-1500s)
Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605)
gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
Overall: 20 x 13.3 cm (7 7/8 x 5 1/4 in.); Painting only: 11.1 x 10.2 cm (4 3/8 x 4 in.)
Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry 1962.279.215.a
Location: 242B Indian Painting

Did You Know?

This painting is attributed to Bihzad, the son of Abd al-Samad the Persian master of the Mughal court.

Description

Three men kneel in the bowels of a dark cave where they have been trapped while seeking hidden treasure. Fearful and desperate, they suddenly hear a disembodied voice that orders them to confess their transgressions. As each man speaks, a portion of the boulder disappears, and they are ultimately freed.
  • ?–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, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1976. p. 133 www.jstor.org
    Mace, Sonya Rhie, Mohsen Ashtiany, Catherine Glynn, Pedro Moura Carvalho, Marcus Fraser, and Ruby Lal. Mughal Paintings: Art and Stories: the Cleveland Museum of Art. London: D Giles Limited, 2016. Reproduced: fig. 4.36, p. 164; Mentioned: pp. 165-66.
  • 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 tale of the three men trapped in a cave by a rolling boulder, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Thirty-second Night|url=false|author=Bihzad|year=c. 1560|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1962.279.215.a