The Parrot Addresses Khujasta at the Beginning of the Twenty-sixth Night, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot)
Unknown Artist
c. 1560
Medium
gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
Dimensions
20.3 × 14 cm · painting only: 11.4 × 10.3 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry
Accession Number
1962.279.179.b
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
When the sun, like a saffron-hued frog, plunged into the pond in the west and the moon, like a fish, came out of its snare in the east, Khujasta adorned with many kinds of jewels and bedecked with a variety of gold and silver ornaments went to Tuti to ask permission to leave. The parrot’s cage seems to hover in midair in the porch of a domed pavilion. The flowering treeentwining the cypress alludes to Khujasta’s desire to embrace her lover. As waterfowl course through the air, the parrot begins ...