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The deceitful wife ejects the procuress after blackening her face, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Eighth Night
by Shravana
Also known as: Page from Tales of a Parrot (Tuti-nama): Eighth night: The deceitful wife ejects the procuress after blackening her face
About the Artwork
The lover of the unfaithful wife sent a female messenger to arrange for their rendezvous. In a false display of horror, the wily adulteress blackened the face of the messenger as though to disgrace her and threw her out of the house, ordering her to be dumped by the side of a canal. That act, however, was a coded message to her lover to meet at the dark of night at that same location. The Indian artist Shravana added the pink brick wall to lend a sense of depth and dimensionality to the scene.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Shravana (Indian, active 1550s–c.1600)
- Date
- c. 1560
- Medium
- gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
- Dimensions
- Overall: 20.3 x 14 cm (8 x 5 1/2 in.); Painting only: 10.5 x 10 cm (4 1/8 x 3 15/16 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- Indian and Southeast Asian Art
- Credit line
- Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry
- Accession no.
- 1962.279.67.b
Provenance
?–1959: Estate of Breckinridge Long [1881–1958], Bowie, MD 1959–1962?: (Harry Burke Antiques, Philadelphia, PA) 1959?–1962: (Bernard Brown Agency, Milwaukee, WI, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Purchased with funds from Mrs. A. Dean [Helen Wade Greene] Perry) 1962–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
More by Shravana in museum collections
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00009787
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