The prince’s ordeal continues, he is ordered away to be executed for the fifth time, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Eighth Night (c. 1560): Art, History and Details

The prince’s ordeal continues, he is ordered away to be executed for the fifth 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 Ghulam 'Ali (Indian, active 1550s-1590s).

The work and its context

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

The deceptive handmaiden appeals her case to the enthroned king, falsely claiming that the young prince has assaulted her. The prince, dressed in white, is taken away by two armed guards to be executed.

Object facts

• Title: The prince’s ordeal continues, he is ordered away to be executed for the fifth time, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Eighth Night
• Date: c. 1560
• Creator attribution: Ghulam 'Ali (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: 16.4 x 11.1 cm (6 7/16 x 4 3/8 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: 1962.279.66.a

A detail from the museum

Works attributed to the artist Ghulam ‘Ali are found in only one other known manuscript.

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.

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.