The goldsmith judged; the bear cubs trained by the carpenter as though they were his sons, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Third Night (c. 1560): Art, History and Details

The goldsmith judged; the bear cubs trained by the carpenter as though they were his sons, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Third 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:

In the upper-left corner, the goldsmith and the carpenter have dinner with their wives and children. The greedy goldsmith has robbed the carpenter who, in revenge, abducts the goldsmith’s sons and replaces them with two bear cubs. Below, the bears rub their faces against the goldsmith’s sleeves, proving to the judge that they must be the man’s transformed children.

Object facts

• Title: The goldsmith judged; the bear cubs trained by the carpenter as though they were his sons, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Third Night
• Date: c. 1560
• Culture: Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Painting only: 10.2 x 10.5 cm (4 x 4 1/8 in.); Overall: 20 x 13.7 cm (7 7/8 x 5 3/8 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1962.279.23.a

A detail from the museum

After the goldsmith returned the stolen goods, his sons were given back.

Collection credit

Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry

Further reading listed by the museum

• Seyller, John. “Overpainting in the Cleveland T̤ūtīnāma.” Artibus Asiae 52, no. 3/4 (1992): 283-318.

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.