The bird of seven colors brings a sable to the pious man, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Fifty-second Night (c. 1560): Art, History and Details

The bird of seven colors brings a sable to the pious man, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Fifty-second 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:

The pious man and his wife stare at the fantastic seven-colored bird in surprise. Although it cost the man his final diram, the bird becomes a source of great wealth and prosperity for his family. Every day it leaves and returns with a sable, which the man sells in the market. Soon the man becomes a well-known merchant.

Object facts

• Title: The bird of seven colors brings a sable to the pious man, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Fifty-second 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: 5.7 x 9.7 cm (2 1/4 x 3 13/16 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1962.279.333.b

A detail from the museum

Several red and yellow gemstones, which fell from the bird’s feathers, rest on the ground at its feet.

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.