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Your galleryThe king plucks fruit from the Tree of Life with his own hands and feeds it to a lady, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Ninth Night
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Find the parrot in the cage a courtier holds up, then the tiny black pompoms that end the ties of the lady’s braid, jewelry and shoes.
The tale goes on. An old man who ate the first fruit dropped dead, because, unknown to the king, a venomous snake had poisoned it, and the king ordered the parrot put to death as a traitor. To save himself the parrot had to prove the fruit harmless, and he was cleared when it made an old man young again. Now the king picks the fruit himself and gives it to a lady to eat, while the parrot watches from his cage. Suraju’s name is written on the page.
gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper · Painting only: 7.7 x 10.1 cm · Cleveland Museum of Art
Read more at the Cleveland Museum of Art
Sources
- Cleveland Museum of Art: The king plucks fruit from the Tree of Life with his own hands and feeds it to a lady, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Ninth Night
- Cleveland Museum of Art: The old man eats of the fruit of the Tree of Life, but drops dead, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Ninth Night
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Details and source
- Museum title
- The king plucks fruit from the Tree of Life with his own hands and feeds it to a lady, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Ninth Night
- Artist
- Suraju (Indian)
- Date
- c. 1560
- Medium
- gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
- Dimensions
- Painting only: 7.7 x 10.1 cm (3 1/16 x 4 in.); Overall: 20 x 13.4 cm (7 7/8 x 5 1/4 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.