The vagabond crosses a stream with the possessions of the daughter-in-law of the king of Banaras and absconds, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Sixteenth Night (c. 1560): Art, History and Details

The vagabond crosses a stream with the possessions of the daughter-in-law of the king of Banaras and absconds, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Sixteenth 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:

After agreeing to run away with the daughter-in-law of the king of Banaras, the destitute young man realizes that their relationship is unlikely to end happily. He leaves, taking her valuables with him. The woman, now alone on the other side of the stream, bereft of her jewelry, touches her index finger to her mouth in a gesture of shock.

Object facts

• Title: The vagabond crosses a stream with the possessions of the daughter-in-law of the king of Banaras and absconds, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Sixteenth 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: 20.3 x 14 cm (8 x 5 1/2 in.); Painting only: 8.5 x 10.2 cm (3 3/8 x 4 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1962.279.120.a

A detail from the museum

The stream was painted in silver, which has tarnished.

Collection credit

Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry

Further reading listed by the museum

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