Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605) / c. 1560
Tuti-Nama (Tales of a Parrot)
The Cleveland Museum of Art catalogs Tuti-Nama (Tales of a Parrot) as painting (Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605) · c. 1560).
Another Akbari Tuti-Nama, painted in the 1580s, is held in Dublin’s Chester Beatty Library.
A CLOSER LOOK
The museum identifies this painting as gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper.
The museum's collection notes: The Tuti-Nama , written in Persian in the early fourteenth century, contains a series of fifty-two moralizing tales told by a clever, talking parrot. Each story is intended to instruct Khujasta and distract her from an adulterous affair. The Cleveland Museum of Art’s copy of the manuscript was painted for Emperor Akbar (r. 1556–1605) and represents the origins of Mughal painting.
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE
The Cleveland Museum of ArtTuti-Nama (Tales of a Parrot)Original explanation based on the sources above. Images carry their own reuse terms.