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The merchant’s daughter meets the gardener, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Twelfth Night

Unknown

1560

unspecified

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art

Mughal Painting Renaissance Renaissance

Dominant colour

The merchant’s daughter meets the gardener, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Twelfth 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

You see a small, bright painting of a rich merchant’s daughter talking to a gardener in a walled garden. Trees are flat shapes, and everyone stands in a single line, like actors on a stage. The story comes from a book of 52 parrot tales read right to left. Artists kept old Persian styles—figures in sharp profile, stiff clothes, and bold gestures—even while working for the Mughal court. Look up *mughal india, court of akbar (reigned 1556–1605)* to see more of these lively miniatures.

The story of this work

Overview

Persian books are read from right to left. One artist illustrated the three scenes from one of the 52 stories of the Tuti-nama , retaining many pre-Mughal traits. Trees stand out as bold shapes, and figures are arranged in a single register, or horizontal spatial band, and have angular and expressive gestures. The figures of the women are closely related to pre-Mughal types, shown always in profile and wearing garments that stand stiffly and sharply out before them. In leaves from the Tuti-nama , Mughal artists adapted the colors, compositions, and figure types of the earlier style.