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Marta Ameri
The concept of the Garden plays an important role in the Islamic world. In the Quran, paradise is described as a garden watered by four great rivers....
Quranic references add to the value of gardens as magical places, and often we see then represented with mythical or unlikely combinations of plants and animals.
Furthermore, while people, especially rulers, in the Islamic world went out of their way to surround themselves with well-watered green spaces, creating gardens was not always possible. In these cases, decorative elements such as tiles could create garden-like spaces both inside and outside of buildings.
The idea of the garden, both real and imagined is represented in a number of the artworks featured in the "Sea in a Jug" exhibit, from the realistic representation of the chahar bagh (four sided) garden that surrounds Akbar's tomb in Sikandra, to the imagined garden with magical trees seen in the painting of.
Emperor Akbar's Tomb at Sikandra
c. 1760-1800
India, Mughal
Opaque watercolor on paper
Stuart Cary Welch Collection
Location 1
Location 2
Location 3
This painting depicts the tomb that Jahangir constructed for his father, Emperor Akbar, after the latter's death in 1605. The composition includes the plan of the tomb as well as design elements of architectural structures. The tomb is represented in a combination of perspectives. The complex as a whole is seen from a bird's-eye view; the buildings are depicted frontally; and the walls and gates on the sides are splayed out laterally. This approach reflects a confluence of cultures and artistic traditions. While in this painting, Indian spatial techniques meet European-style three-point perspective (where lines in the same plane recede and converge at three points in space), it nevertheless aligns more closely with traditional Indian architectural scenes than with the highly accurate and realistic
"company style," a painting style developed in India in the late eighteenth century in response to British tastes. The gardeners, cart driver, and other figures add liveliness and realism.
A Mughal and a Rajput Converse at Dusk
Late sixteenth century
Attributed to Basawan
India, Mughal
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper
Harvard Art Museums/ Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Stuart Cary Welch, Jr.
Many cultures and traditions coexisted in South Asia when this painting was made, and this multicultural milieu is manifested here. The man on the left is Mughal and lived during the reign of Akbar, an emperor who expanded the Mughal Empire to most of the Indian subcontinent. The one on the right, identifiable by his turban, facial hair, and darker complexion, is Rajput and would therefore have belonged to one of the many Indian landowning clans. An attendant holds a white scarf above the Mughal's head, denoting his royal status.
Within the Islamic world, gardens played an important role both as ways to exhibit wealth and as meeting spaces that could be more casual than a formal court encounter. The sword placed on the ground before the seated figure on the left suggests that Mughal and Rajput shown in this painting are not necessarily partaking in a friendly chat, but the garden atmosphere helps to lighten the weight of the moment. Painters of Persian and Mughal miniatures often placed the action scenes in their paintings.
The city of Iznik became one of the centers of ceramic tile production during the Ottoman Empire. Tiles from Iznik were used extensively in Ottoman buildings and exported throughout the world. It has even been suggested that the overproduction of Iznik tiles was one of the things that led to the downfall of the Ottoman Empire.
Description:
This tile from the Welch collection is characterized by a series of red and white and blue and white flowers on alternating red and blue grouns. the central red element on the tile combines a river-like shape with a collection of leaf and flowelike forms, while the serrated edges of the blue forms are reminiscent of the saz leaves that define this style of tiles. The leaves themselves are represented as green accents in the center and right side of the tile. The two semicircular shapes on the left and right edges of the tile would have served as joins to create an overall pattern.
Iznik tiles are often defined by the presence of the leaves of the saz plant. These long, serrated leaves with jagged edges give the tiles their distinctive appearance and characterize the saz style
Blair, S., J. Bloom, and R. Ettinghausen. The art and architecture of Islam 1250-1800, Yale University Press Pelican history of art. New Haven Conn.: Yale University Press, 1994.
Golombek, L., "The Function of Decoration in Islamic Architecture," Chap., In Theories and Principles of Design in the Architecture of Islamic Societies., edited by Sevcenko, M.B., 35-45. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture., 1988.
Grabar, O. Islamic visual culture, 1100-1800, Variorum collected studies series. Aldershot, Hampshire, Eng. ; Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2006.