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The four destitute friends go to a wise man who gives each one of them a magic shell to be placed on top of the turban, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Forty-seventh Night
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About this work
The seated wise man drops a small, red shell into the final friend’s outstretched hands. He then instructs each of them to go out into the world and walk until the shell falls to the ground. If the man digs where the shell lands, he will find something to sustain him.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineThe four destitute friends go to a wise man who gives each one of them a magic shell to be placed on top of the turban, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Forty-seventh Night, c. 1560. Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605). Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper; overall: 20.3 x 14 cm (8 x 5 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry, 1962.279.301.b
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