The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 19, 2024

The parrot addresses Khujasta at the beginning of the thirty-first night, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot)

The parrot addresses Khujasta at the beginning of the thirty-first night, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot)

c. 1560
(reigned 1556–1605)
gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
Overall: 20.3 x 14 cm (8 x 5 1/2 in.); Painting only: 6.2 x 10.2 cm (2 7/16 x 4 in.)
Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry 1962.279.203.b
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

The painting depicting the blue jackal is in the Edwin Binney 3rd Collection of the San Diego Museum of Art (1990.273).

Description

On the thirty-first of fifty-two nights, Tuti the talking parrot begins to tell Khujasta a moralizing story about a blue jackal who, through trickery, briefly became the emir of wild beasts. The original underdrawing in black and red is visible beneath the flaked paint on Khujasta’s face and upper body.
  • ?–1959
    Estate of Breckinridge Long [1881–1958], Bowie, MD
    1959–1962?
    (Harry Burke Antiques, Philadelphia, PA)
    1959?–1962
    (Bernard Brown Agency, Milwaukee, WI, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Purchased with funds from Mrs. A. Dean [Helen Wade Greene] Perry)
    1962–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    Provenance Footnotes
    1 Samuel Miller Breckinridge Long (May 16, 1881–September 26, 1958) was an American diplomat and politician, who served in the administrations of Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Long is largely remembered for his obstructionist role as the Assistant Secretary of State responsible for granting refugee visas during World War II. His interests included the collection of antiques, paintings and American ship models. He maintained a stable of Thoroughbred race horses and was a director of the Laurel Park Racecourse in Laurel, Maryland, and he enjoyed fox hunting, fishing, and sailing.
  • Chandra, Pramod, and Daniel J. Ehnbom. The Cleveland Tuti-Nama Manuscript and the Origins of Mughal Painting. [Cleveland]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1976. pp. 79, 130
    Seyller, John. “Overpainting in the Cleveland T̤ūtīnāma.” Artibus Asiae 52, no. 3/4 (1992): 283-318. p. 317 www.jstor.org
  • Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 245); July 2, 2014 - January 5, 2015.
  • {{cite web|title=The parrot addresses Khujasta at the beginning of the thirty-first night, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot)|url=false|author=|year=c. 1560|access-date=19 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1962.279.203.b