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Landscape with a lotus pool, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot), Eighth Night

Gujarati

1560

unspecified

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art

Mughal Painting Renaissance Renaissance Landscape

Dominant colour

Landscape with a lotus pool, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot), Eighth Night is a 1560 unspecified by Gujarati, a Mughal Painting work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.

Who painted this?: Gujarati
When & what style?: 1560 · Mughal Painting
Where can I see it?: Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

A dark pool glows between pink hills, lotus pads floating on tarnished silver water. Two white birds wade at the edges, while trees with layered leaves arch above. This small painting was made in Gujarat but looks like work from Persia—dry ground, tufted grass, and swirling water lines. The silver leaf that once shimmered is now black, showing how time changes art. To see more paintings like this, look up mughal india, court of akbar (reigned 1556–1605).

The story of this work

Overview

Two white birds wade at the edges of a dark colored lotus pool surrounded by lush green trees. Though the artist is from the western Indian state of Gujarat, many elements reveal a familiarity with Persian painting conventions, such as the arid pink ground with tufts of grass, the overlapping leaves of the trees, and the grassy sward. The water was once silver, which has now tarnished black, and white lines render swirling eddies.