The handmaiden appeals for justice and the prince is taken to the execution site for the fourth time, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Eighth Night (c. 1560): Art, History and Details

The handmaiden appeals for justice and the prince is taken to the execution site for the fourth time, 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 2 (Indian, active 1550s-1590s).

The work and its context

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

Above, the enthroned king hears the appeal of the distressed handmaiden. Below, the bound and kneeling prince awaits his execution. Although the prince has been falsely accused of assaulting the handmaiden, he has taken a temporary vow of silence and is unable to defend himself. A vizier will stall the execution with a story about the dangers of women.

Object facts

• Title: The handmaiden appeals for justice and the prince is taken to the execution site for the fourth time, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Eighth Night
• Date: c. 1560
• Creator attribution: Tara 2 (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: 16.6 x 10 cm (6 9/16 x 3 15/16 in.); Overall: 20 x 14.4 cm (7 7/8 x 5 11/16 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1962.279.63.b

A detail from the museum

Two painters named Tara are known from the Akbar period.

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.