Collection Online as of February 8, 2023

The queen of Rum watches the peahen prefer to burn rather than abandon her eggs while the peacock flees the nest, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Thirty-ninth Night

c. 1560

Part of a set. See all set records

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 x 10.3 cm (6 5/16 x 4 1/16 in.)

Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry 1962.279.254.b

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

Rum is the Arabic name of Rome and once designated the Byzantine Empire.

Description

The queen of Rum sits in the upper balcony of her palace watching the fire in her garden with shock. Two female attendants observe the action from the room below. The cowardliness of the peacock in the face of danger convinced the queen of the disloyalty of men. As a result, she vowed to never marry.

Provenance

Estate of Breckenridge Long, Bowie, MD, 1959; Harry Burke Antiques, Philadelphia, PA; Bernard Brown, Milwaukee, WI;

Citations

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, 140

Nakhshabī, Z̤iyāʼ al-Dīn, and Muhammed Ahmed Simsar. Tales of a Parrot = The Cleveland Museum of Art's Ṭūṭīnāma. Cleveland: The Museum, 1978. p. 242, n.289