The handmaiden again pleads for the death of the prince, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Eighth Night (c. 1560): Art, History and Details

The handmaiden again pleads for the death of the prince, 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 Lalu (Indian, active mid-1500s).

The work and its context

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

This early Mughal court scene is the last of the series in which the handmaiden lies about how the prince raped her, and she threatens to burn herself to death if he is not executed. She is depicted in the lower right of the composition. The seventh vizier in the green robe demanded that the prince be brought to the assembly, and he is led in, bound, his turban in disarray.

Object facts

• Title: The handmaiden again pleads for the death of the prince, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Eighth Night
• Date: c. 1560
• Creator attribution: Lalu (Indian, active mid-1500s)
• 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: 10.1 x 10.3 cm (4 x 4 1/16 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1962.279.71.b

A detail from the museum

The prince’s undone turban, loose hair, and bound wrists indicate his ordeal.

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.
• 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.