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

**Unknown artist**  
c. 1560  
gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper  
Overall: 20.3 x 14 cm (8 x 5 1/2 in.); Painting only: 9.2 x 10.2 cm (3 5/8 x 4 in.)

Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1962.279.237.a. [The museum's record](https://clevelandart.org/art/1962.279.237.a).

## About this work

On the thirty-sixty of fifty-two nights, Khujasta stands before Tuti the talking parrot in a brightly patterned courtyard. In order to keep Khujasta from visiting her lover, Tuti begins to tell her the tragic story of the King of Zabul, who fell for a merchant’s daughter and ultimately died as a result of his unrequited love.

_Text from the Cleveland Museum of Art._

An unrecorded Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605) artist painted this in about 1560. It is now at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

### How it was made

- **Opaque watercolour.** Watercolour made opaque with white or chalk and laid in flat, even layers. Persian and Indian painters ground their colours from minerals, applied them with the finest brushes and burnished the finished page.
- **Tempera.** Pigment bound with egg yolk. It dries in minutes and can’t be blended wet, so painters built up form with fine, hatched strokes. It was Europe’s main panel technique before oil.
- **Ink on paper.** Ink made from soot and animal glue, ground with water on an inkstone. A single brush can give a hair-fine line or a broad wash, and nothing can be corrected.

## Facts

- Type: Painting
- Culture: Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605)
- Real size: about 8 × 5½ in (20 × 14 cm). The original is small: even the 8 × 10 in print shows it larger than life.
- Century: 16th century
- Colour: brown
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/649.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/649/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/the-parrot-addresses-khujasta-at-the-beginning-of-the-thirty-cma-137650).