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Asiatica
Association

Pleasure Gardens and Garden Tombs
Courtly Arts under the Mughals

April 28, 2006 - January 28, 2007

Museum für Indische Kunst
Lansstraße 8, 14195 Berlin-Dahlem
tel. 030 8301 361 / 438

Palace garden in a river landscape
Late Mughal, Oudh, ca. 1785
Opaque watercolour and gold on paper
Stemming from Central Asia the Islamic Mughal Dynasty (1526-1858) is among the longest-living and most powerful dynasties of India. By the 17th century, the dynasty’s reign already spanned across virtually the entire Indian Subcontinent. This period gave birth to some of the Islamic world’s most beautiful gardens.

The Mughal’s fondness of civilized nature is reflected not only in their gardens and palaces but rather in almost all of their arts. This exhibition presents 170 masterworks of royal workshops: silver-inlaid metalwork, jades, glasswork and crystals, filigree ivory carvings, precious jewelry and colorful textiles all document both the various ways of portraying botanical motifs as well as a certain sensibility reaching out to like-minded souls.

The exhibition is culled from significant German private collections and three of the Collections of the State Museums of Berlin. This marks the first time that the public is offered such an exquisite and plentiful selection of Berlin’s Indo-Islamic and rajput art treasures in a single comprehensive exhibition.

Detail from the River side view of the Taj Mahal
North India, Agra, ca. 1800
Opaque watercolour on cloth
A high degree of naturalism is characteristic of Mughal art. This is especially apparent in delicate miniatures which represent a high point in Islamic painting. Even with this genre, gardens are ever-present. However, in the 17th century, such motifs merely serve as background scenery: for courtly ceremonies, genre scenes, often with amorous details, and especially for portraits.

By the 18th century the garden finally receives more attention as an artistic subject itself. Paintings from this period portray precise representations of famous gardens. In particular, Emperor Shah Jahan’s (reign: 1628- 1658) monument for his favorite wife, the Taj Mahal, the most famous of so-called garden monuments, elicited extraordinary fascination from painters of the 18th century. A special interest in architecture is reflected in the artistic approach to this subject matter: Painters concentrated on architectural and decorative details, created central perspective views or simply portrayed the layout of the garden. The first comprehensive series of architectural and garden depictions were commissioned and the Museum für Indische Kunst possesses one of the most famous examples of such art. With such paintings and exceptional large-scale representations of the Taj Mahal on textiles, the subject of Indo-Islamic gardens comes full circle. These are the prototypes of the “Pleasure Gardens and Garden Tombs” of the Mughal period.

pictures by Iris Papadopoulos

Hair dressing scene
Mughal style, ca. 1700
Opaque watercolour and gold on paper
Emperor Farrukhsiyar
Mughal style, ca. 1715
Opaque watercolour and gold on paper
Portrait of a Princess
Rajasthan, Jaipur, Mughal style, mid 18th century
Opaque watercolour and gold on paper
Big Pendant
North India (Jaipur?), ca. 1800, obverse
Gold, diamonds, rubies, enamel
Big Pendant
North India (Jaipur?), ca. 1800, reverse
Gold, diamonds, rubies, enamel

Asiatica Association
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  via V. Bellini, 4
  20122 Milano, Italy
  tel. +39 02 76011736
  fax +39 02 700511864

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IJTS Editors
  Enrica Garzilli (Editor in Chief, Italy)
  Michael Witzel (Managing Editor, USA)
  Roberto Donatoni (Italy)
  Minoru Hara (Japan)
  Karel van Kooij (The Nederlands)
  David N. Lorenzen (Mexico)
  Benjamin Prejado (Mexico)
  Michael Rabe (USA)
  Debabrata Sensharma (India)

JSAWS Editors
  Enrica Garzilli (Editor in Chief, Italy)
  Jayaraj Acharya (Nepal)
  Gregory Bailey (Australia)
  Oscar Botto (Italy)
  Geraldine Forbes (USA)
  Himendra Thakur (USA)
  Kapila Vatsyayan (India)
  Albrecht Wezler (Germany)
  Carolyne Wright (USA)


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