Book Cover with Tree, Birds, and Insects
This book cover decorated with opulent and fantastical flowering scenes on lacquer was made for a manuscript or album that has since been disseminated. Depictions of flowering vases are a known design from the Deccan, and the fertile trees are oftentimes interpreted as "Tree of Life" motifs. The unusually large scale of the birds and insects in the scene is characteristic of the whimsical creativity of artists from the Deccan region of India.