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 folio from the Persian manuscript Tales of a Parrot (Tuti‑nama).
About this work
History & Provenance
It is now held in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art, where it is catalogued under accession number 1962.
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 attributed to an unknown artist. It is now held in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art, where it is catalogued under accession number 1962.279.200.a, as part of its holdings of South Asian painting.
The provenance between its original Mughal production and its accession by the museum is not detailed in the available sources, and no exhibition history is documented.
Context
The page from the Tuti-nama, produced circa 1560 in Mughal India, exemplifies the synthesis of Persian narrative traditions with emerging Mughal visual sensibilities in early manuscript painting. Its text page format reflects the didactic purpose of the Tuti-nama's animal fables, while its production aligns with contemporaneous courtly workshops active during Akbar's patronage. The work's attribution to an anonymous artist working within imperial ateliers underscores the collective nature of manuscript production, in which individual authorship was subsumed under workshop practice.
Its presence in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection reflects the transregional transmission of South Asian artistic heritage.
Overview
This object is a single folio from the Persian manuscript Tales of a Parrot (Tuti‑nama). The page consists of densely written dark blue ink on a light, slightly yellowed paper, bordered by a thin red line. The script is compact, with small dots and connecting strokes that give the text a fluid appearance.
Subject & Meaning
The folio contains a portion of the narrative Tales of a Parrot, a collection of moral and didactic stories traditionally transmitted in Persian. The text presents a sequence of episodes featuring a parrot that conveys wisdom, reflecting the genre’s emphasis on ethical instruction through allegory.
Technique & Style
The calligrapher employed a fine-point pen to produce uniform dark blue strokes, arranging the letters in neat rows with consistent spacing. Small diacritical marks and connecting lines enhance legibility. A subtle red pigment outlines the page’s perimeter, a common decorative practice in Persian codices of the period.
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
Page from Tales of a Parrot (Tuti-nama): text page
Tuti-Nama (Tales of a Parrot)
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