Window mode follows your eyes with your camera, in this browser only: no picture or position leaves your device.
The merchant hears of his wife’s unfaithfulness (above); the unfaithful wife performs penance by plucking her hair (below), from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): First Night
c. 1560
- Medium
- gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- Painting only: 16.3 x 10.3 cm (6 7/16 x 4 1/16 in.); Overall: 20 x 13.6 cm (7 7/8 x 5 3/8 in.)
- Culture
- Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605)
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Indian and Southeast Asian Art
- Credit line
- Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Kids profiles and older: it shows nature, places, still life or a children's book. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
In the upper register the merchant is surrounded by gossiping members of his household. Below, birds surround his unfaithful wife. The merchant’s parrot, whom the wife tried to kill, perches on the edge of a tomb to observe her act of penance. Once her penance is complete, the parrot reunites the couple, and the wife is welcomed home.
