Collection Online as of December 3, 2023

The bag of gold which he received for the slave girl being stolen in a mosque, the young man of Baghdad tears his cloths and is about to fling himself into the Tigris, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Forty-eighth 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: 11.7 x 10.1 cm (4 5/8 x 4 in.)

Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry 1962.279.306.a

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

Gigantic fish and a crocodile lurk in the swirling waters of the Tigris.

Description

In the foreground, the distraught young man stands at the edge of the rushing river. Desperate for money, he has sold his lover, a slave girl, but finds himself destitute again. A group of onlookers watch the distressed man from the courtyard in front of the mosque. They will jump into the water to save him before he can drown.

Provenance

?–1959

Estate of Breckinridge Long [1881–1958], Bowie, MD ¹

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

¹Samuel 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.

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, 146