Tuti-Nama (Tales of a Parrot)
c. 1560
Maker Unknown
Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Tuti-Nama (Tales of a Parrot), c. 1560. Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605). Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper; overall: 20.3 x 14 cm (8 x 5 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry 1962.279 The Tuti-Nama, written in Persian in the early fourteenth century, contains a series of fifty-two moralizing tales told by a clever, talking parrot. Each story is intended to instruct Khujasta and distract her from an adulterous affair. The Cleveland Museum of Art’s copy of the manuscript was painted for Emperor Akbar (r. 1556–1605) and represents the origins of Mughal painting. Another Akbari Tuti-Nama, painted in the 1580s, is held in Dublin’s Chester Beatty Library.
- Maker/Artist
- Maker Unknown
- Classification
- Painting
- Formatted Medium
- gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
- Dimensions
- Overall: 20.3 x 14 cm (8 x 5 1/2 in.)
- Departments
- Indian and Southeast Asian Art
- Accession Number
- 1962.279
- Credit Line
- Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry
- Exhibitions
- Year in Review (1963), Art of Mughal India, Juxtapositions, The Cleveland Tuti-Nama Manuscript and the Origins of Mughal Painting, A Cleveland Bestiary, The Twain Shall Meet, Dance of the Gods: Indian Art Inspired by Music
- Rights Statement
- CC0
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