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The merchant’s clerk replaces the sugar purchased by the philandering wife with gravel, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Eighth Night
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
While buying sugar at the market, a woman has an impromptu affair with a merchant. The two lovers embrace in the chamber on the left. Outside the chamber the merchant’s clerk, wearing blue, surreptitiously replaces the adulteress’s sugar with gravel.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineThe merchant’s clerk replaces the sugar purchased by the philandering wife with gravel, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Eighth Night, c. 1560. Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605). Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper; painting only: 10.5 x 10.2 cm (4 1/8 x 4 in.); overall: 20 x 14.4 cm (7 7/8 x 5 11/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry, 1962.279.70.a
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