The deceitful wife assaults her erring husband, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Eighth Night (c. 1560): Art, History and Details

The deceitful wife assaults her erring husband, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Eighth Night (c. 1560) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Tara 1 (Indian, active 1550s-1590s).

The work and its context

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

A merchant’s wife carries on affairs while her husband is away. On the journey home, the merchant buys a woman’s company for the night. His own wife answers the call. When the merchant’s identity is revealed, the wife attacks him in order to distract from her own indiscretions. Townspeople surrounding the merchant’s chamber look on at the sound of the assault.

Object facts

• Title: The deceitful wife assaults her erring husband, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Eighth Night
• Date: c. 1560
• Creator attribution: Tara 1 (Indian, active 1550s-1590s)
• Culture: Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Painting only: 14.8 x 10.3 cm (5 13/16 x 4 1/16 in.); Overall: 20 x 13.6 cm (7 7/8 x 5 3/8 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1962.279.60.b

A detail from the museum

Both the brothel madam and one of the customers in the courtyard bite the index finger in a gesture of surprise.

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.
• Chandra, Pramod, and Daniel J. Ehnbom. The Cleveland Tuti-Nama Manuscript and the Origins of Mughal Painting. [Cleveland]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1976.
• McCloskey, Robert. More Homer Price: From Centerburg Tales. New York: Scholastic Book Services, 1963.

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.