Open full image Pin
The daughter-in-law returns from her misadventure, feigning insanity, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Sixteenth Night, by Unknown, unspecified, 1560

The daughter-in-law returns from her misadventure, feigning insanity, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Sixteenth Night

Unknown

1560

unspecified

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art

Dominant colour

Overview

The daughter-in-law returns from her misadventure, feigning insanity, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Sixteenth Night is a 1560 unspecified by Unknown, a Mughal Painting work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.

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

About this work

A woman with wild hair and torn clothes kneels before a king. She’s barefoot, no jewelry, pretending to be mad. The king sits on a carpet, watching. Above them, women peek from a balcony, shocked. This painting tells a story from a 16th-century Indian book called the *Tuti-nama*. The woman is lying—she ran off with a lover and now has to hide it. The artist shows her acting crazy, but the real drama is in the faces of the people watching. To see more paintings like this, look up Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605).

The story of this work

Overview

After a failed love affair, the daughter-in-law of the king of Banaras returns home to her husband. Her disheveled hair and lack of jewelry support her claims of insanity and hide the evidence of her true whereabouts. The woman is greeted by the king, who sits with one of his attendants. In the chambers above them, a group of women look on in surprise.

Did you know?

An arm visible beneath the central chamber indicates that a smaller figure has been overpainted.

Read the full account in the museum source.

About the artist

More by Unknown

Artifact World Gallery — 100,000 artworks Get the app