The lion, suspecting treachery on the part of the monkey, slays him and flees, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Twenty-ninth Night (c. 1560): Art, History and Details

The lion, suspecting treachery on the part of the monkey, slays him and flees, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Twenty-ninth 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:

The monkey, who once served as the lion’s chamberlain, lies mauled and dead in the meadow. The lion, who was once a formidable ruler, has become convinced that that the monkey betrayed him. In reality, the lion fell for a trick laid by a family of clever lynx who invaded his den.

Object facts

• Title: The lion, suspecting treachery on the part of the monkey, slays him and flees, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Twenty-ninth 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: 12.5 x 10 cm (4 15/16 x 3 15/16 in.); Overall: 20.3 x 14 cm (8 x 5 1/2 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1962.279.197.a

A detail from the museum

A male torso, visible under the chipped paint, indicates this page was intended for another picture.

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.

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.