The young prince recounts his experiences to his father, the king, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Eighth Night (c. 1560): Art, History and Details

The young prince recounts his experiences to his father, the king, 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 Suraju (Indian).

The work and its context

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

After seven days the young prince’s vow of silence has come to an end, and he is finally able to speak and defend himself against false charges of assault by the handmaiden. He addresses his enthroned father while the surrounding members of the king’s court look on. The deceitful handmaiden who accused the prince stands alone in the chamber in the upper right.

Object facts

• Title: The young prince recounts his experiences to his father, the king, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Eighth Night
• Date: c. 1560
• Creator attribution: Suraju (Indian)
• 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 x 10.1 cm (4 5/16 x 4 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1962.279.72.a

A detail from the museum

The prince’s tutor had forbidden him from speaking for the last week.

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.
• 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.