The infant son of the king of Isfahan responds to music, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Thirteenth Night (c. 1560): Art, History and Details

The infant son of the king of Isfahan responds to music, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Thirteenth 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:

A group of musicians play a variety of instruments in hopes of eliciting a reaction from the young prince. The prince, dressed in orange, sits up in his crib to acknowledge the sound while the other children remain asleep. His eager response to the music shows that he is a noble child who will become a great king.

Object facts

• Title: The infant son of the king of Isfahan responds to music, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Thirteenth 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 x 14.1 cm (7 7/8 x 5 9/16 in.); Painting only: 12.4 x 10.1 cm (4 7/8 x 4 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1962.279.105.a

A detail from the museum

The instruments played include a tambourine, drum, and cymbals.

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.
• Nakhshabī, Z̤iyāʼ al-Dīn, and Muhammed Ahmed Simsar, translator and editor. Tales of a Parrot = The Cleveland Museum of Art's Ṭūṭīnāma. Cleveland, OH: The Museum, 1978.
• 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.