The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of March 28, 2024
The street cleaner, on his way to meet King Bhojaraja, sleeps under a tree where four thieves disguised as fellow travelers deprive him of a priceless pearl, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Twelfth Night
c. 1560
(reigned 1556–1605)
Overall: 20.3 x 14 cm (8 x 5 1/2 in.); Painting only: 10.5 x 10.4 cm (4 1/8 x 4 1/8 in.)
Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry 1962.279.97.a
Location: not on view
Did You Know?
The body of the thief has been overpainted and repositioned.Description
Paintings like this reveal how the artists of the Tuti-nama appear to have freely experimented with techniques to make Persian and Indian styles more lively and natural to accord with the taste of their patron, the young Emperor Akbar. Grasses highlighted in yellow impressionistic sprays fill the ground under the magnificent banyan tree. Its trunk is encrusted with a network of aerial roots; the foliage has both green-veined leaves with yellow rims, and freshly sprouted pink sprigs. The streetcleaner, in the blue tunic, had come across a pearl of such high quality that no jeweler knew how much it was worth. So he decided to visit the king to see if he would buy it. On the way he fell in with four other travelers who robbed him of the pearl while he was sleeping.- ?–1959Estate of Breckinridge Long [1881–1958], Bowie, MD1959–1962?(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
- 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, 111Seyller, John. “Overpainting in the Cleveland T̤ūtīnāma.” Artibus Asiae 52, no. 3/4 (1992): 283-318. p. 313 www.jstor.org
- Main Gallery Rotation (gallery 245): April 28, 2015 - November 2, 2015.Indian Minature Rotation (Gallery 115); August 18, 2004 - May 23, 2005.Indian Miniature Rotation (Gallery 115); August 13, 2003 - February 18, 2004.
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Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1962.279.97.a