The deceitful wife ejects the procuress after blackening her face, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Eighth Night Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605)

The deceitful wife ejects the procuress after blackening her face, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Eighth Night

c. 1560

Shravana

(Indian, active 1550s–c.1600)

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.); Painting only: 10.5 x 10 cm (4 1/8 x 3 15/16 in.)

Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry 1962.279.67.b

Location: not on view

You can copy, modify, and distribute this work, all without asking permission. Learn more about CMA's Open Access Initiative.

Did You Know?

The striped dome and yellow bricks are vestiges of an earlier style of painting.

Description

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.