Book Cover with Tree, Birds, and Insects

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 693

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.

Book Cover with Tree, Birds, and Insects, Lacquer, opaque watercolor, and gold on leather

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