Open full image Pin

The handmaiden again pleads for the death of the prince, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Eighth Night

Lalu

1560

unspecified

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art

Mughal Painting Renaissance Renaissance Made for Prince Salim

Dominant colour

The handmaiden again pleads for the death of the prince, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Eighth Night is a 1560 unspecified by Lalu, a Mughal Painting work, depicting Made for Prince Salim, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.

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

About this work

You see a crowded courtroom: turbaned men in robes, a bound prince with his turban half-off, and a woman kneeling at the bottom right, pointing at him. This painting is from a storybook told by a parrot to keep its owner from sneaking out at night. The woman is lying—she made up the rape charge to get the prince killed. The artist shows her dramatic moment, but the real drama is the lie itself. To see more of these storytelling paintings, look up *mughal india, court of akbar (reigned 1556–1605)*.

The story of this work

Overview

This early Mughal court scene is the last of the series in which the handmaiden lies about how the prince raped her, and she threatens to burn herself to death if he is not executed. She is depicted in the lower right of the composition. The seventh vizier in the green robe demanded that the prince be brought to the assembly, and he is led in, bound, his turban in disarray.