# The tale of the three men trapped in a cave by a rolling boulder, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Thirty-second Night

**Bihzad** (Persian, active in India mid-1500s)  
c. 1560  
gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper  
Overall: 20 x 13.3 cm (7 7/8 x 5 1/4 in.); Painting only: 11.1 x 10.2 cm (4 3/8 x 4 in.)

Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1962.279.215.a. [The museum's record](https://clevelandart.org/art/1962.279.215.a).

## About this work

Three men kneel in the bowels of a dark cave where they have been trapped while seeking hidden treasure. Fearful and desperate, they suddenly hear a disembodied voice that orders them to confess their transgressions. As each man speaks, a portion of the boulder disappears, and they are ultimately freed.

_Text from the Cleveland Museum of Art._

Bihzad 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.

### [Bihzad](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/bihzad)

Persian, active in India mid-1500s

## Facts

- Type: Painting
- Culture: Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605)
- Real size: about 8 × 5 in (20 × 13 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/647.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/647/1920.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-tale-of-the-three-men-trapped-in-a-cave-by-a-rolling-bou-cma-137604).