The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 21, 2025

Vertically oriented book page with Persian script in the upper third and a painting below depicting men and women meeting in a garden, with medium-dark and light skin tones. On our left, three women wear stiff, patterned skirts and jewelry. On our right, four men brandish swords, shields, and a spear, a light brown dog running out in front of them. Behind stand trees with various leaf patterns, white birds perched in them.

The merchant’s daughter encounters a wolf and bandits on her way to meet the gardener in order to keep her promise, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Twelfth Night

c. 1560

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: 11.2 x 10.1 cm (4 7/16 x 4 in.)
Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry 1962.279.99.b
Location: 242B Indian Painting

Did You Know?

The highly decorative way of painting trees did not continue into later Mughal painting traditions.

Description

Persian books are read from right to left. One artist illustrated the three scenes from one of the 52 stories of the Tuti-nama, retaining many pre-Mughal traits. Trees stand out as bold shapes, and figures are arranged in a single register, or horizontal spatial band, and have angular and expressive gestures. The figures of the women are closely related to pre-Mughal types, shown always in profile and wearing garments that stand stiffly and sharply out before them. In leaves from the Tuti-nama, Mughal artists adapted the colors, compositions, and figure types of the earlier style.
  • ?–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. p. 112
    Chandra, Pramod, and Daniel J. Ehnbom. The Cleveland Tuti-Nama Manuscript and the Origins of Mughal Painting. [Cleveland]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1976. p. 112
    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).
    Main Gallery Rotation (gallery 245): April 28, 2015 - November 2, 2015.
    Victoria and Albert Museum, London (3/6/2003 - 6/8/2003) and Museum Reitberg, Zurich, Germany (6/28/2003 - 10/20/2003): "The Adventures of Hamza", exh. cat. no. 12, pp. 70-71.
    The Adventures of Hamza. Victoria and Albert Museum, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (March 6-June 8, 2003); Museum Rietberg, Zürich, CH 8002 Zürich, Switzerland (June 28-October 21, 2003).
  • {{cite web|title=The merchant’s daughter encounters a wolf and bandits on her way to meet the gardener in order to keep her promise, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Twelfth Night|url=false|author=|year=c. 1560|access-date=21 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1962.279.99.b