Khulasa, a vizier, sees the daughter of Khassa, another vizier, and covets her, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Fifty-first Night (c. 1560): Art, History and Details

Khulasa, a vizier, sees the daughter of Khassa, another vizier, and covets her, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Fifty-first Night (c. 1560) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Khulasa watches Khassa’s daughter as she kneels devoutly on a prayer rug in the garden. He touches his index finger to his mouth, signaling his awe and surprise. Despite his love, Khulasa knows that the woman is chaste and will not agree to marry him.

Object facts

• Title: Khulasa, a vizier, sees the daughter of Khassa, another vizier, and covets her, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Fifty-first Night
• Date: c. 1560
• Culture: Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Overall: 20.3 x 14 cm (8 x 5 1/2 in.); Painting only: 9.2 x 10.1 cm (3 5/8 x 4 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1962.279.325.b

A detail from the museum

The woman’s figure has been painted over some sections of the tree in the foreground.

Collection credit

Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry

Further reading listed by the museum

• Chandra, Pramod, and Daniel J. Ehnbom. The Cleveland Tuti-Nama Manuscript and the Origins of Mughal Painting. [Cleveland]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1976.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.