Cleveland Museum of Art

The old procuress conveys the young man’s message of love to Mansur’s wife, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot: Seventeenth 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

When a lascivious young man learns of the beauty and virtue of the merchant Mansur’s wife, he becomes obsessed with her. While Mansur is away on a long journey, the man decides to profess his love for the woman through a messenger. Here Mansur’s wife, seated on an arabesque-patterned carpet, rebuffs the young man’s advances and sends the procuress away. The golden mihrab next to vessels for ritual cleansing points toward Mecca, emphasizing the wife’s piety.

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