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<p>This painting illustrates a story about a merchant who owned a donkey but did not have enough money to feed him. He was able to secure a lion's skin, in which he dressed his donkey at night, so he could forage freely in fields, frightening away the owners’ watchmen, seen here scrambling up in trees for safety. He succeeded for a time and grew fat and healthy, until a nearby donkey brayed, and he instinctively answered, revealing his true identity.
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The distinctive painterly style of this page appears to be the work of one of Akbar's most talented artists, Basawan. The free brushwork is complex but assured with a soft and wet application of color in the billowing grass, trees, and the furry texture of the lion skin, rendered here as that of a tiger.</div>
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Basavana</div>
between 1558 and 1560 <div style="display: none;">date QS:P571,+1550-00-00T00:00:00Z/7,P1319,+1558-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1326,+1560-00-00T00:00:00Z/9</div>
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