The Parrot Addresses Khujasta at the Beginning of the Thirtieth Night, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot) (c. 1560): Art, History and Details

The Parrot Addresses Khujasta at the Beginning of the Thirtieth Night, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot) (c. 1560) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

At the beginning of fifty-two consecutive nights, Khujasta prepares to depart her home to meet her lover. Before she leaves, she consults with Tuti, her husband’s wise talking parrot. On this occasion, he tells her the story of a woman, her children, and their dangerous encounter with a leopard.

Object facts

• Title: The Parrot Addresses Khujasta at the Beginning of the Thirtieth Night, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot)
• Date: c. 1560
• Culture: Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Overall: 20.3 x 14 cm (8 x 5 1/2 in.); Painting only: 11.5 x 10.2 cm (4 1/2 x 4 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1962.279.198.a

A detail from the museum

The parrot was overpainted and repositioned—his original tail is still visible!

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.