Bring your favorites together in your free personal gallery.
Your galleryThe wounded monkey bites the hand of the prince, his chessmate, in the presence of guests, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Fifth Night
Look first
- What catches your attention?
- Where does your eye go next?
- What would you ask about this work?
Show me
Where paint has flaked away, as on the prince’s face, look for the cool blue layer Dasavanta laid beneath his colors, then find the red chessboard beside the monkey.
To warn her young against friendships with other kinds of animals, the mother parrot tells a story. A monkey that played chess with a prince made a bad joke at a party for dignitaries; the prince struck him, and in return the monkey bit his hand. Guests look on in astonishment while food is prepared. The inscription at the foot of the page, “the work of Dasavanta,” names a painter who went on to become one of the Mughal court’s most celebrated Indian masters.
gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper · Overall: 20 x 14.2 cm · Cleveland Museum of Art
Look again
What do you notice now?
Try a quick sketch
Take a minute to sketch on any paper. No upload needed.
What did you draw first? What did you leave out?
Details and source
- Museum title
- The wounded monkey bites the hand of the prince, his chessmate, in the presence of guests, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Fifth Night
- Artist
- Dasavanta (Indian, d. 1584)
- Date
- c. 1560
- Medium
- gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
- Dimensions
- Overall: 20 x 14.2 cm (7 7/8 x 5 9/16 in.); Painting only: 10.2 x 10.6 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.