Book Cover with Tree, Birds, and Insects
Decorated with opulent and fantastical floral scenes on lacquer, these covers were made for a manuscript or album that has since been dispersed. Depictions of flowering vases and the shift in scale between the birds and insects are both characteristic of the whimsical creativity of artists from the Deccan courts of India. Among the fertile trees, often interpreted as “Tree of Life” motifs, are various birds that resemble swooping kingfishers, plump partridges, a crested hoopoe, and small owls.
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