1560
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
You see a woman kneeling, holding a bowl of food toward a man who smashes a pot in anger. A small bird lies on the ground, head missing. This scene comes from a book of parrot tales told in Mughal India. The story is dark: the man wants the bird’s head because eating it could make him king. But the woman’s son already ate it, and the man demands she cook her own child instead. The painting shows the moment before the violence gets worse. Look up more paintings from Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605) to see how these stories were told in art.
