The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of February 25, 2026

Vertically oriented book page with Persian script in the upper two thirds and an image in the lower depicting a man with medium skin tone seated cross-legged on our right, handing a green parrot to a standing, orange-wearing man on our left who reaches one hand to the parrot and arcs the other over his head. The man on our right sits under an overhang, wearing a blue tunic, a leopard skin over his shoulders.

The monk returns the magic parrot to its rightful owner, the merchant, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Tenth Night

c. 1560

Lalu

(Indian, active mid-1500s)
Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605)
gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
Painting only: 5.8 x 10.2 cm (2 5/16 x 4 in.); Overall: 20 x 13.2 cm (7 7/8 x 5 3/16 in.)
Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry 1962.279.84.a
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Sufis carried a bowl for begging alms.

Description

The monk, seated and wearing a leopard-skin cape across his shoulders, hands the talking, wooden parrot back to the merchant. Previously, the monk had gotten this parrot from the wife of the vizier’s son, who had it stolen from the merchant in order to win a wager.
  • ?–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. 78, 109
    Seyller, John. “Overpainting in the Cleveland T̤ūtīnāma.” Artibus Asiae 52, no. 3/4 (1992): 283-318. p. 313 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 monk returns the magic parrot to its rightful owner, the merchant, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Tenth Night|url=false|author=Lalu|year=c. 1560|access-date=25 February 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1962.279.84.a