The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of March 28, 2024
Khujasta kills the pet mynah who advises her not to be unfaithful to Maymun, her husband, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of the Parrot): First Night
c. 1560
(reigned 1556–1605)
Overall: 19.9 x 14.2 cm (7 13/16 x 5 9/16 in.); Painting only: 12.9 x 10.5 cm (5 1/16 x 4 1/8 in.)
Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry 1962.279.8.a
Location: not on view
Did You Know?
Merchant ships brave treacherous waters; a distant city appears in the upper left.Description
This first painting from Akbar’s Tuti-nama depicts a scene from the book’s frame story. Using a narrative device common in pre-Mughal India, the painting shows three different moments of time: Maymun sailing away on a merchant ship; his wife, Khujasta, on the roof of her house gesturing to, as the story tells us, a prince on the street below, with whom she falls in love; and Khujasta in the courtyard of her home having dashed the pet mynah bird to the floor in anger.An exceptionally important manuscript, the Tuti-nama was painted by Indian artists, many of whom were learning to work in a Persian book format for the first time. Stylistic features of pre-Mughal Indian painting appear throughout the manuscript, such as the flat red floor and the white-on-black horizontal parapet.
- ?–1959Estate of Breckinridge Long [1881–1958], Bowie, MD1959–1962?(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
- Chandra, Pramod, and Daniel J. Ehnbom. The Cleveland Tuti-Nama Manuscript and the Origins of Mughal Painting. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1976. pp. 83-84Seyller, John. “Overpainting in the Cleveland T̤ūtīnāma.” Artibus Asiae 52, no. 3/4 (1992): 283-318. p. 309 www.jstor.org
- Art and Stories from Mughal India. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 31-October 23, 2016).Indian Miniature Rotation (Gallery 115). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 20-August 18, 2004).Indian Miniature Rotation (Gallery 115). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 4-August 5, 2003).
- {{cite web|title=Khujasta kills the pet mynah who advises her not to be unfaithful to Maymun, her husband, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of the Parrot): First Night|url=false|author=|year=c. 1560|access-date=28 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1962.279.8.a