Artwork
Page from Tales of a Parrot (Tuti-nama): text page
Page from Tales of a Parrot (Tuti-nama): text page is an unspecified painting. It dates from 1560 and is held in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. This object is a single leaf from the illustrated manuscript known as *Tales of a Parrot* (Tuti‑nama).
About this work
Overview
This object is a single leaf from the illustrated manuscript known as *Tales of a Parrot* (Tuti‑nama). The folio consists of a light‑brown, aged paper support bearing black ink text framed by thin, straight marginal lines. The page functions as both a literary and visual artifact, preserving the manuscript’s decorative script and layout.
Subject & Meaning
The central element is a passage of narrative prose written in an ornate, curvilinear script. While the language is not identified here, the elaborate lettering suggests a formal, possibly courtly, literary tradition, and the surrounding borders serve to contain and emphasize the text’s significance within the work.
Technique & Style
Ink was applied with a fine brush or pen, producing a dense, flowing hand characteristic of Persianate manuscript traditions. The marginal frames are executed with precise, linear strokes, contrasting with the decorative script and indicating a careful division between text and decorative space.
History & Provenance
The folio originates from the *Tuti‑nama*, a medieval collection of stories that circulated across Central and South Asia. The specific provenance of this leaf is not detailed, but similar pages are held in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art, suggesting it may have entered a Western institutional collection through early 20th‑century acquisitions of Asian manuscripts.
Context
Manuscript culture in the region prized the integration of text and ornamentation, with each page designed as a cohesive visual unit. The *Tuti‑nama* belongs to a genre of didactic literature that employed animal protagonists, such as a parrot, to convey moral lessons, reflecting broader pedagogical practices of the period.
Artist & collection
Page from Tales of a Parrot (Tuti-nama): text page
Page from Tales of a Parrot (Tuti-nama): text page
Page from Tales of a Parrot (Tuti-nama): text page
Page from Tales of a Parrot (Tuti-nama): text page
Page from Tales of a Parrot (Tuti-nama): text page
Page from Tales of a Parrot (Tuti-nama): text page
Page from Tales of a Parrot (Tuti-nama): text page
Page from Tales of a Parrot (Tuti-nama): text page
Page from Tales of a Parrot (Tuti-nama): text page