The parrot brings a fruit from the Tree of Life to the king of Syria, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Ninth Night (c. 1560): Art, History and Details

The parrot brings a fruit from the Tree of Life to the king of Syria, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Ninth 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:

A wise, green parrot perches on the hand of the king of Syria. Clutched in his beak is a small orange fruit that he plucked from a tree in the netherworld and brought back as a reward for many years of the king’s kindness. Despite being offered eternal life, the king is hesitant to eat the fruit.

Object facts

• Title: The parrot brings a fruit from the Tree of Life to the king of Syria, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Ninth 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: Painting only: 7.6 x 10.2 cm (3 x 4 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: 1962.279.75.b

A detail from the museum

Outside of this manuscript, only one other known work is attributed to the painter Lalu.

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.
• 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.