The Parrot Addresses Khujasta at the Beginning of the Eighteenth Night, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot)
1560
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1560
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
You see a woman in a bright red dress sitting on the floor, listening to a green parrot perched on a stand. The room is small, with gold walls and a patterned rug. This painting comes from a book of stories told by a parrot to delay his owner’s nightly visits to her lover. Each night, the parrot spins a new tale—this is the start of the eighteenth. The tiny details, like the woman’s embroidered slippers and the parrot’s curved beak, show how carefully the artist worked. To see more like this, look up Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605).
