Artwork
The merchant’s daughter encounters a wolf and bandits on her way to meet the gardener in order to keep her promise, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Twelfth Night
The merchant’s daughter encounters a wolf and bandits on her way to meet the gardener in order to keep her promise, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Twelfth Night is an unspecified painting by the Mughal Painting artist Unknown. It dates from 1560 and is held in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. This painting is one page from a Tuti-nama, a 52-story manuscript read from right to left.
About this work
You see a girl in a bright red dress walking through a dark forest, a wolf and two bandits creeping behind the trees.
You see a girl in a bright red dress walking through a dark forest, a wolf and two bandits creeping behind the trees.
The painting is one page from a 52-night storybook read right to left. The trees look like cut-out shapes, and everyone stands in a single flat line—no depth, just clear action. The women’s clothes stick out stiffly, a style from before the Mughal court took over.
To see more paintings like this, look up mughal india, court of akbar (reigned 1556–1605).
Overview
This painting is one page from a Tuti-nama, a 52-story manuscript read from right to left. It depicts a scene from the twelfth night's tale.
Subject & Meaning
The scene shows a young woman in a red dress walking through a forest, stalked by a wolf and two bandits, as she journeys to meet a gardener.
Technique & Style
The artist arranged figures in a single horizontal band, with bold tree shapes and angular gestures. Women's figures, shown in profile, wear stiff, sharply outlined garments, reflecting pre-Mughal influences.
Context
The Tuti-nama's illustrations blend pre-Mughal traits with emerging Mughal styles, adapting earlier colors, compositions, and figure types.
History & Provenance
The painting is associated with the court of Akbar, who reigned from 1556 to 1605, a period when Mughal artists were developing their distinctive style.
Artist & collection
Domestic Scene
Giacomo and Cardinal Marco, investing Andrea, Abbot of San Zeno, with his Benefice
The Nymph of Fontainebleau
Portrait of a Woman
Madonna and Child with Saints in the Enclosed Garden
Venus and Minerva
Family Group of Four on Sofa
Wall painting from Room H of the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale
The merchant’s daughter encounters a wolf and bandits on her way to meet the gardener in order to keep her promise, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Twelfth Night
The merchant’s daughter meets the gardener, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Twelfth Night
The daughter-in-law of the king of Banaras sees the jackal deprived of its food by a bird, as it unsuccessfully attempts to catch a fish, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Sixteenth Night
The king plucks fruit from the Tree of Life with his own hands and feeds it to a lady, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Ninth Night
The king plucks fruit from the Tree of Life with his own hands and feeds it to a lady, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Ninth Night
Page from Tales of a Parrot (Tuti-nama): text page
The queen of Rum watches the peahen prefer to burn rather than abandon her eggs while the peacock flees the nest, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Thirty-ninth Night
The daughter of the merchant of Mazanderan asks the gardener for the rose, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Twelfth Night
The wolf and the jackal, serving as viziers, instigate the lion who pursues the Brahman up a tree, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Twenty-first Night