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The deceitful wife persuades her husband to sleep in the same place where she had previously slept with her lover, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Eighth Night

Unknown

1560

unspecified

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art

Renaissance Renaissance Allegory

Dominant colour

The deceitful wife persuades her husband to sleep in the same place where she had previously slept with her lover, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Eighth Night is a 1560 unspecified by Unknown, a Renaissance work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.

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

About this work

You see a woman in a red dress talking to a man in a green robe by a garden pool, while a servant waits nearby. This painting comes from a book of parrot tales told to a Mughal emperor. The woman is tricking her husband to cover up an affair. The artist used tiny gold dots and bright colors to show wealth and drama. We don’t know who painted it, but the style is very precise. To see more paintings like this, look up Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605).

The story of this work

Overview

In order to preempt the accusations of her father-in-law, the clever wife brought her husband to the same location and slept with him there. When her father-in-law then confronted his son, telling him that he caught his wife in bed with a man by the side of the canal and had her anklet to prove it, the husband simply laughed and said that the man was he, himself. In this manner the clever woman did not get caught in her adultery. The vizier's story convinced the king to doubt the word of his handmaiden and stay the execution of his son. The handmaiden, hearing this, appealed to the king to…