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Your galleryThe hunter offers the mother parrot to the king of Kamarupa, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Fifth Night
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Look past the billowing red curtain, one of Basavana’s signature motifs, to the glimpse of forest where the mother parrot will later escape and find her young again.
The fifth night’s tale goes on: a hunter has caught the mother parrot and offers her to the king of Kamarupa, who has leprosy, promising that the bird knows a cure. Basavana, named in the right margin, shades the hunter’s rustic clothes so they seem to hang softly and gives him a look of sly expectation, while the king looks willing to pay well. The lavish gold shows how costly the book was to make.
gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper · Overall: 20 x 14.3 cm · Cleveland Museum of Art
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Details and source
- Museum title
- The hunter offers the mother parrot to the king of Kamarupa, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Fifth Night
- Artist
- Basavana (Indian, active c. 1560–1600)
- Date
- c. 1560
- Medium
- gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
- Dimensions
- Overall: 20 x 14.3 cm (7 7/8 x 5 5/8 in.); Painting only: 10.2 x 10.7 cm (4 x 4 3/16 in.)
- Credit line
- Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Cleveland Museum of Art
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.