Cleveland Museum of Art
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
- Date
- c. 1560
- Medium
- gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
- Culture
- Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605)
- Department
- Indian and Southeast Asian Art
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Object ID
- 137431
From the Cleveland Museum of Art record
The prince and Good Fortune in the form of a woman came across a pool, here rendered with geometric tile work, tilted up so that the viewer can see it as though from above. A cobra had caught a frog, who cried out for help. The prince freed the frog, who jumped into the water and rejoined his mate. The prince then cut a piece of his own flesh for the snake to eat instead. The wives of the snake and frog then admonished their husbands to return the favor. The tree with red-tipped leaves is a mango tree.
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Provenance & credit
As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.
- Credit line
- Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry
- Provenance
- ?–1959: Estate of Breckinridge Long [1881–1958], Bowie, MD | 1959–1962?: (Harry Burke Antiques, Philadelphia, PA) | 1959?–1962: (Bernard Brown Agency, Milwaukee, WI, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Purchased with funds from Mrs. A. Dean [Helen Wade Greene] Perry) | 1962–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
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