Artwork

The prince, having deprived the snake of its natural food, a frog, feeds it with a piece of his own flesh, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Eighteenth Night

The prince, having deprived the snake of its natural food, a frog, feeds it with a piece of his own flesh, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Eighteenth 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. The painting illustrates a scene from a 16th‑century Indian collection of parrot tales.

About this work

The prince’s act is extreme—cutting his flesh to repay the snake—but the scene is calm, almost matter-of-fact, with bright colors and careful details.

A prince kneels by a tiled pool, offering a piece of his own arm to a coiled cobra. The snake’s last meal, a frog, swims free in the water below.

This painting tells a story from a 16th-century Indian book of parrot tales, meant to teach lessons about kindness and debt. The prince’s act is extreme—cutting his flesh to repay the snake—but the scene is calm, almost matter-of-fact, with bright colors and careful details.

To see more stories like this, look up Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605).

Overview

The painting illustrates a scene from a 16th‑century Indian collection of parrot tales. A kneeling prince stands beside a tiled pool, offering a slice of his own arm to a coiled cobra that has just released a frog back into the water. The composition is rendered in vivid hues, with the geometric tiles and calm atmosphere emphasizing the narrative moment.

Subject & Meaning

The episode conveys a moral lesson on generosity and reciprocity. After the prince rescues the frog from the snake’s jaws, he sacrifices a piece of his flesh to feed the cobra, prompting the frog’s and snake’s wives to urge their husbands to repay the kindness. The story underscores the virtue of self‑offering and the expectation of gratitude.

Technique & Style

Executed with precise brushwork, the artist employs a flattened perspective that looks down onto the tiled pool, creating a bird’s‑eye view. Bright, saturated colours delineate the figures and the intricate tile pattern, while the calm rendering of the characters lends a narrative clarity typical of Mughal court paintings.

Context

The work derives from the Tuti‑nama, a Persian‑influenced anthology of moral tales popular in Mughal India during Emperor Akbar’s reign (1556‑1605). Such illustrations were used in courtly manuscripts to educate elite audiences about ethical conduct through allegorical stories.

Legacy

The painting exemplifies the synthesis of Persian literary tradition with Indian artistic conventions that characterized Mughal visual culture. Its didactic content and refined execution continue to inform studies of how narrative art functioned as moral instruction in early modern South Asia.