The king places the talisman on his sleeping wife, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Fiftieth Night, c. 1560
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The king places the talisman on his sleeping wife, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Fiftieth Night

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: 11 x 10.8 cm (4 5/16 x 4 1/4 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
Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed

View at the Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

The king, believing that his wife has carried on an affair with a slave, acquires a talisman that will make her tell the truth. She reveals that the young man is not her lover, but her son from a former marriage. In reality, the talisman is not magic but is instead part of a plan to prove the wife’s innocence.