The Parrot Addresses Khujasta at the Beginning of the Seventh Night, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot)

The Cleveland Museum of Art catalogs The Parrot Addresses Khujasta at the Beginning of the Seventh Night, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot) as painting (Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605) · c. 1560).

WHY IT’S INTERESTING

This miniature displays an intermingling of various pre-Akbar idioms in the Mughal atelier.

SERENDIPITYA little unexpected

FamiliarWeird

A CLOSER LOOK

The museum identifies this painting as gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper.

The museum's collection notes: Every night for 52 nights the sly domesticated parrot encourages his master’s wife Khujasta to meet her lover under cover of darkness. Just before she leaves, the parrot mentions a topic from a tantalizing tale; she becomes so curious that she cannot go out before hearing the whole story. By the time the story ends, dawn breaks, and it is too late for her to go out unnoticed. The artist who painted this page was still firmly entrenched in the idioms of pre-Mughal painting.

FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE

The Cleveland Museum of ArtThe Parrot Addresses Khujasta at the Beginning of the Seventh Night, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot)

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