Cleveland Museum of Art in Ohio, USA (not on view)
Daswanth, the son of a palanquin-bearer, was discovered by Emperor Akbar while drawing on workshop walls and trained under the Persian master Khwāja Abd al-Ṣamad. The Tuti-nama was the only manuscript entirely his own. He went on to work on the Hamzanama and Razmnama as a lead artist. In 1584, he died by his own hand, leaving behind an unfinished career in Mughal art.
Although this painting is small, it is extremely intense.
The backstory of this painting is a mother parrot narrating a story to its young ones, warning them about interspecies friendships, like theirs with the fox cubs. The story starts with a monkey playing chess with a Royal prince. As the Prince calls for other higher officials to play with them, the monkey makes a bad joke about it. This causes the Prince to feel an intense wave of rage, and he slaps the monkey. Upon this disrespect, the monkey is also filled with the emotion of anger and bites the Prince in return. This miniature catches that exact moment where the monkey’s teeth meet royal flesh, courtiers frozen in shock, food preparation carrying on obliviously to the left.
Brightly coloured figures push towards the edges of the picture and leave no space anywhere in it. The artist painted a cool blue underpainting beneath the picture's surface, which is an exceptionally sophisticated use of paint all by itself and adds a special glow to the painting. Wet-on-wet paint application, like many European watercolour painters used, distinguishes this painting from other forms of Mughal painting from the same period.
Painted by the Indian artist Dasavanta, who eventually became a celebrated master at the Mughal court, this miniature depicts a story from Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot), referencing a cautionary tale told by a mother parrot to her children to warn them against interspecies friendships.
Set in a prince’s court gathering, the arms and gazes of the party guests direct the viewer’s eye towards the focal point of the painting: the dispute between a monkey and the prince. What started as a bad joke by the monkey in a chess game resulted in a series of retaliations, first the prince slapping the monkey, after which the monkey returned the favour by biting the prince’s hand, a moment that is captured by the painting. With vivid colours and varied expression, Dasavanta brings a court scene to life while emphasising the story’s theme of mutual harm.
https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/the-wounded-monkey-bites-the-hand-of-the-prince-his-chessmate-in-the-presence-of-guests-from-a-tuti-nama-tales-of-a-parrot-fifth-night-dasavanta-indian-d-1584/owFvjpB86OnP8Q?hl=en
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1962.279.32.b
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By: Yin Yan Chan
In many ways, I see this small image as a commentary on the precarious nature of power and emotions. Although the prince is a person in the highest social stratum, the miniature reveals the moment when the power is unable to restrain the feelings. In particular, it seems to me that the bite of the monkey cannot be regarded simply as violence but as a response to the humiliating treatment. Daswanth illustrates the moment when two opposite characters turn into equals, guided by the same impulse.
Such an interpretation is emphasized by the composition itself. Characters accumulate at the margins of the image, conveying the inevitability of the described event, and the surprise expressed by courtiers is in sharp contrast to the indifference of other people. The underpainting in blue and saturated colors add to the emotional nature of the painting. It looks like the artist tries to teach people about the dangers of pride, losing temper and disrupting the harmony.
