
Cleveland Museum of Art
The Brahman comes upon a lion who has a deer and a gazelle as his viziers, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Twenty-first 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
- 137468
From the Cleveland Museum of Art record
On the left, the wary Brahman approaches the great lion, who rests on the banks of a river. Before the lion can attack, the deer and the gazelle step in and council him to receive the Brahman kindly. The Brahman has wandered into the wilderness after losing all of his wealth, but the lion gifts him an immense treasure. The Brahman has a mark on his forehead identifying him as a worshipper of the Hindu god Vishnu.
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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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