{
"data": {
"id": 137492,
"accession_number": "1962.279.161.a",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "The merchant has the hateful skull ground and put into a box, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Twenty-third Night, c. 1560. Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556\u20131605). Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper; overall: 20.3 x 14 cm (8 x 5 1/2 in.); painting only: 10.5 x 10.2 cm (4 1/8 x 4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry, 1962.279.161.a",
"current_location": null,
"title": "The merchant has the hateful skull ground and put into a box, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Twenty-third Night",
"creation_date": "c. 1560",
"creation_date_earliest": 1555,
"creation_date_latest": 1565,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556\u20131605)"
],
"technique": "gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Indian and Southeast Asian Art",
"collection": "Indian Art",
"type": "Painting",
"measurements": "Overall: 20.3 x 14 cm (8 x 5 1/2 in.); Painting only: 10.5 x 10.2 cm (4 1/8 x 4 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.203,
"height_inch": 8,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.0,
"width": 0.14,
"width_inch": 5,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.5
},
"painting only": {
"height": 0.105,
"height_inch": 4,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.125,
"width": 0.102,
"width_inch": 4,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.0
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Estate of Breckinridge Long [1881\u20131958], Bowie, MD",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [
"Samuel Miller Breckinridge Long (May 16, 1881\u2013September 26, 1958) was an American diplomat and politician, who served in the administrations of Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Long is largely remembered for his obstructionist role as the Assistant Secretary of State responsible for granting refugee visas during World War II.
His interests included the collection of antiques, paintings and American ship models. He maintained a stable of Thoroughbred race horses and was a director of the Laurel Park Racecourse in Laurel, Maryland, and he enjoyed fox hunting, fishing, and sailing.
"
],
"date": "?\u20131959",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "(Harry Burke Antiques, Philadelphia, PA)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1959\u20131962?",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "(Bernard Brown Agency, Milwaukee, WI, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Purchased with funds from Mrs. A. Dean [Helen Wade Greene] Perry)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1959?\u20131962",
"sortorder": 3
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1962\u2013",
"sortorder": 4
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "This story takes place in Tabriz, capital of Iran\u2019s Safavid Empire from 1501 to 1555.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "A small, yellow box rests on the ground in the center foreground of the image. Inside are the remains of a skull inscribed with a warning that it had caused the death of eighty men and would cause the death of eighty more. The merchant, on the left, had the skull destroyed, unaware that his actions could not circumvent fate.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60466863"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1962.279.161.a-the-merchant-has-the"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Chandra, Pramod, and Daniel J. Ehnbom. The Cleveland Tuti-Nama Manuscript and the Origins of Mughal Painting. [Cleveland]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1976.",
"page_number": "pp. 79, 123",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Nakhshabi\u0304, Z\u0324iya\u0304\u02bc al-Di\u0304n, and Muhammed Ahmed Simsar. Tales of a Parrot = The Cleveland Museum of Art's T\u0323u\u0304t\u0323i\u0304na\u0304ma. Cleveland: The Museum, 1978.",
"page_number": "Trans. pp. 152-156",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Seyller, John. \u201cOverpainting in the Cleveland T\u0324\u016bt\u012bn\u0101ma.\u201d Artibus Asiae 52, no. 3/4 (1992): 283-318.",
"page_number": "p. 316",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/3249892"
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1962.279.161.a",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1962.279.161.a/1962.279.161.a_web.jpg",
"width": "573",
"height": "893",
"filesize": "490997",
"filename": "1962.279.161.a_web.jpg"
},
"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1962.279.161.a/1962.279.161.a_print.jpg",
"width": "2181",
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"filesize": "6574146",
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"full": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1962.279.161.a/1962.279.161.a_full.tif",
"width": "3333",
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},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 137492,
"creators": [],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1962-11-17T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1555,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "c. 1560",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "part",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": "1962.279",
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [
"Page from Tales of a Parrot (Tuti-nama): Twenty-third night: The merchant has the hateful skull ground and put into a box"
],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-29 07:01:17.484000"
}
}