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The parrot addresses Khujasta at the beginning of the forty-third night, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot)
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: 9.2 x 10.3 cm (3 5/8 x 4 1/16 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 this brightly patterned scene, Khujasta prepares to leave for a clandestine rendezvous. However, she is stopped by Tuti the parrot, who tells her moralizing stories that last until sunrise.
Multiple architectural spaces have been flattened as though they were made using paper cutouts. Khujasta stands on the pink tiled floor of a courtyard. Behind her the blue carpet on the floor of a covered porch has been tilted up vertically below the red tiled lower wall decor. Lattice windows reveal the darkness of night. The golden tile patterns above the protrusions of the pink stone roof appear to indicate the floor of the roof above.
