# The merchant’s daughter meets the gardener, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Twelfth Night

- Date: c. 1560
- Medium: gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
- Classification: Painting
- Dimensions: Overall: 20.3 x 14 cm (8 x 5 1/2 in.); Painting only: 9.8 x 10.1 cm (3 7/8 x 4 in.)
- Culture: Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605)
- Credit line: Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry
- Museum: [Cleveland Museum of Art](https://clevelandart.org/art/1962.279.100.b)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/cma/1962.279.100.b/1962.279.100.b_web.jpg
- Who can see it: Kids profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

Persian books are read from right to left. One artist illustrated the three scenes from one of the 52 stories of the Tuti-nama, retaining many pre-Mughal traits. Trees stand out as bold shapes, and figures are arranged in a single register, or horizontal spatial band, and have angular and expressive gestures. The figures of the women are closely related to pre-Mughal types, shown always in profile and wearing garments that stand stiffly and sharply out before them. In leaves from the Tuti-nama, Mughal artists adapted the colors, compositions, and figure types of the earlier style.