The parrot addresses Khujasta at the beginning of the thirty-first night, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot)

c. 1560

The parrot addresses Khujasta at the beginning of the thirty-first night, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot), c. 1560. Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605). Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper; overall: 20.3 x 14 cm (8 x 5 1/2 in.); painting only: 6.2 x 10.2 cm (2 7/16 x 4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry 1962.279.203.b On the thirty-first of fifty-two nights, Tuti the talking parrot begins to tell Khujasta a moralizing story about a blue jackal who, through trickery, briefly became the emir of wild beasts. The original underdrawing in black and red is visible beneath the flaked paint on Khujasta’s face and upper body. The painting depicting the blue jackal is in the Edwin Binney 3rd Collection of the San Diego Museum of Art (1990.273).