Cleveland Museum of Art
The snake enters into an argument with the frog, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Twenty-sixth 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
- 137539
From the Cleveland Museum of Art record
Cave compositions were replicated for multiple types of scenes in India, based on Persian models like the Shah-nama painting CMA 1988.96.a . The black background of the caves in the Tuti-nama provides the viewer a window into a subterranean space, the mouth of which is shown amid the rocks above. Shapur, the exiled frog tyrant, asked a snake to devour his enemies. However, when the snake became hungry again, he ate Shapur’s friends and family. Without any subjects to rule, the frog escaped his dangerous ally and lived out his life, sad and alone. The story takes place in China.
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Provenance & credit
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- 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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