The Parrot Addresses Khujasta at the Beginning of the Twenty-second 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
A bright green parrot perches on a stand, talking to a woman in a red dress under a starry sky. Around them, servants and animals fill a courtyard with patterned tiles and flowering trees. This painting comes from a book of parrot tales told to delay a wife’s secret meeting. The flat colors and busy details are typical of Indian art before European styles arrived. The parrot isn’t just a bird—it’s the storyteller. To see more work like this, look up Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605).
