The gardener seizes and beats a donkey who insisted on braying, while the deer, its companion flees to safety, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Forty-first Night (c. 1560): Art, History and Detai

The gardener seizes and beats a donkey who insisted on braying, while the deer, its companion flees to safety, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Forty-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:

On the right, the furious gardener raises his staff to strike the ensnared donkey, who struggles to escape his bonds. The deer had previously tried to warn the donkey that his loud and abrasive singing would be his downfall. However, the stubborn donkey could not resist the temptation to bray.

Object facts

• Title: The gardener seizes and beats a donkey who insisted on braying, while the deer, its companion flees to safety, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Forty-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: 11.7 x 10.2 cm (4 5/8 x 4 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1962.279.267.a

A detail from the museum

The male spotted deer with delicate white antlers is known as a chital and is native to India.

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.