Artwork
Page from Tales of a Parrot (Tuti-nama): text page
Page from Tales of a Parrot (Tuti-nama): text page is an unspecified painting. It dates from 1560 and is held in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. This object is a single leaf from the illustrated manuscript known as Tales of a Parrot (Tuti‑nama).
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The work originates from the Mughal Empire in 1560 and is housed in the Cleveland Museum of Art.
The page from the Tuti-nama depicts a parrot recounting moral tales, a motif that symbolizes wisdom and didactic instruction in Mughal Persian miniature painting. The text page functions as a visual narrative device, conveying didactic stories that teach ethical conduct and royal virtue, reflecting the broader symbolic role of parrots as bearers of hidden truths and counsel in Persian literature. The work originates from the Mughal Empire in 1560 and is housed in the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Technique & Style
The work is a miniature painting executed on paper, representative of Mughal artistic production in 16th-century India. Rendered circa 1560, it exemplifies the stylistic refinement characteristic of manuscript illumination from the period, combining delicate line work with restrained coloration typical of courtly illustration. The text page originates from the Persian-language Tuti-nama, a didactic frame narrative that was adapted into illustrated form under Mughal patronage, reflecting the synthesis of Persian literary tradition and Indian visual culture.
The painting’s survival in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection underscores its significance as a material artifact of early modern manuscript production, where narrative and figural precision served both aesthetic and didactic functions within elite cultural circles.
History & Provenance
This text page from a Tales of a Parrot (Tuti-nama) manuscript was created in 1560 within the Mughal Empire. The work is classified as a painting and is now part of the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art, where it is catalogued under accession number 1962.279.279.a. The artist responsible for the page is unidentified in available records.
No further details on commission, prior ownership, or chain of custody prior to the Cleveland Museum of Art's acquisition have been documented in the sources.
Legacy
The miniature page from the Tuti-nama, painted in 1560 within the Mughal imperial workshop, circulated widely across manuscript collections and influenced later Persianate illustration through its distinctive compositional rhythm and narrative framing. Its stylized figures and flattened spatial treatment were emulated in subsequent Safavid and Deccani Mughal works, particularly in illustrated fables where text and image interlace. The Cleveland Museum of Art holds the surviving fragment, which continues to inform scholarly studies of cross-cultural manuscript transmission and the visual grammar of early modern Indian Ocean artistic exchange.
Overview
This object is a single leaf from the illustrated manuscript known as Tales of a Parrot (Tuti‑nama). The page consists of a sheet of paper on which a dense block of black calligraphic text is arranged in tight, orderly rows. The surface shows the warm patina of age, with faint brown spotting and a thin red border framing the top and bottom edges.
Context
Produced during the Mughal period, the Tuti‑nama combines Persian literary themes with Indian artistic conventions. Such works were often created in royal workshops, where scribes and painters collaborated to produce luxurious texts for aristocratic audiences.
Artist & collection
Page from Tales of a Parrot (Tuti-nama): text page
Page from Tales of a Parrot (Tuti-nama): text page
Page from Tales of a Parrot (Tuti-nama): text page
Page from Tales of a Parrot (Tuti-nama): text page
Page from Tales of a Parrot (Tuti-nama): text page
Page from Tales of a Parrot (Tuti-nama): text page
Page from Tales of a Parrot (Tuti-nama): text page
