Artwork
The unfaithful wife explaining away the presence of the dough elephant, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Eighth Night
The unfaithful wife explaining away the presence of the dough elephant, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Eighth Night is an unspecified painting. It dates from 1560 and is held in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art.
About this work
Overview
The work is a miniature illustration from the Persian manuscript *Tuti-nama* ("Tales of a Parrot"), specifically the eighth night of the collection.
The work is a miniature illustration from the Persian manuscript *Tuti-nama* ("Tales of a Parrot"), specifically the eighth night of the collection. It portrays a domestic scene in a garden where a kneeling man in pink offers an object to a seated woman in blue, while a lumpy white mass resembling dough is positioned between them. Arabic calligraphy occupies the upper half of the page, framing the narrative.
Subject & Meaning
The image visualizes a humorous anecdote in which the female figure attempts to explain the sudden appearance of a dough‑shaped "elephant" in her home. The tale, like many in the *Tuti-nama*, uses absurdity to convey a moral lesson about honesty and the consequences of deceit, reflecting the didactic purpose of the collection.
Technique & Style
Executed in the traditional Persian miniature style, the painting employs vibrant pigments and delicate brushwork to delineate figures and foliage. The composition balances text and image, with the arabic script integrated into the visual field. The use of bright clothing colors and stylized forms typifies the courtly aesthetic of 16th‑century manuscript illustration.
History & Provenance
The page is part of a larger illuminated manuscript that entered the Cleveland Museum of Art's collection in the early 20th century. The museum acquired it through a donation from a private collector of Islamic art, and it now forms part of the museum's holdings of Persian illustrated books, accessible for scholarly study and public viewing.
Artist & collection
The lover’s son makes an elephant of the pastry dough carried by the unfaithful wife and puts it in her basket, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Eighth Night
The Brahman’s wife who killed a peacock and ate its gallbladder on the physician’s advice, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Nineteenth Night
Landscape with a lotus pool, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Eighth Night
The Parrot Addresses Khujasta at the Beginning of the Eighth Night, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot)
The parrot addresses Khujasta at the beginning of the thirty-eighth night, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot)
The king’s handmaiden takes the prince away to the harem, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Eighth Night
Kamjuy, the wife of the Raja, averts her face from the fishes, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Twenty-third Night
The sentinel in the employ of the Shah of Tabaristan prepares to sacrifice his son to the ghost of the Shah’s soul, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Second Night
The Parrot Addresses Khujasta at the Beginning of the Twenty-third Night, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot)
The prince rejects the amorous advances of the king’s handmaiden, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Eighth Night