Artwork

The young man of Baghdad solicits advice from a friend as his slave girl, who is adept at music, awaits, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Forty-eighth Night

The young man of Baghdad solicits advice from a friend as his slave girl, who is adept at music, awaits, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Forty-eighth 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.

About this work

The stories were meant to entertain and teach lessons—here, a man who wasted his money now faces a tough choice.

You see a young man in a turban talking to a friend while a woman with a harp waits behind them. The room is small, with patterned carpets and soft light.

This painting comes from a book of parrot tales told in Mughal India. The stories were meant to entertain and teach lessons—here, a man who wasted his money now faces a tough choice. The artist used bright colors and fine details to show the fabrics and expressions.

To see more art like this, look up *mughal india, court of akbar (reigned 1556–1605)*.

Overview

This painting is one of forty-eight illustrations from a Mughal manuscript of the Tuti-nama, a collection of frame tales centered on a talking parrot. Created during the reign of Akbar, it depicts a moment of moral tension within a story meant to instruct through narrative. The scene unfolds in a modest interior, rendered with delicate brushwork and vivid pigments, characteristic of the imperial atelier’s style.

Subject & Meaning

A young man, having exhausted his wealth, consults a companion on how to restore his fortune. The friend proposes he become a musician for noble patrons—a path the man finds dishonorable. In response, he resolves to sell the slave girl, who sits silently with her harp, embodying both his past indulgence and potential means of survival. The scene explores themes of dignity, loss, and the commodification of people under social decline.

Technique & Style

The artist employs fine, precise lines and layered washes to render textiles, facial expressions, and architectural details. Bright mineral pigments highlight the richness of garments and carpets, while soft, diffused lighting suggests an intimate interior. The composition isolates the figures against a plain background, focusing attention on their gestures and emotional distance, a hallmark of Mughal narrative painting.

History & Provenance

Commissioned under Emperor Akbar in the 1560s, the Tuti-nama manuscript was produced by a team of painters in the imperial atelier. This folio likely originated in the early phase of Mughal manuscript production, when Persian literary traditions were being adapted into an Indian context. The work remained in royal collections until dispersed in the 19th century, with individual folios entering private and institutional holdings.

Context

The Tuti-nama tales, originally composed in Persian, were translated and illustrated for Akbar’s court as tools of moral and political instruction. Each story, framed by the parrot’s nightly narratives, offered lessons on wisdom, restraint, and consequence. This scene reflects broader anxieties about social mobility and the erosion of aristocratic status in a changing imperial society.

Legacy

The illustration exemplifies the synthesis of Persian literary culture and Indian artistic practice that defined early Mughal painting. Its psychological nuance and attention to domestic detail influenced later courtly narratives. Though the manuscript was eventually disbound, its individual sheets continue to inform scholarly understanding of Mughal visual storytelling and its engagement with ethical dilemmas.