Musée du Ben

In a misty morning, surrounded by green grasses and orchard trees I rest. The sound of melancholy from the birds and crisp sound from grass soothes your soul. The place was known to be as Royal Men’s Paradise and it serves as a symbol of sovereignty.

Today we are going to witness a folio from haft awrang (seven thrones) created by Jamie (1556-1565) in the Safavid period now treasured by Freer and Sackler galleries. Blended by opaque watercolour and mixed ink and gold on paper this creation is made. It is named as ‘The townsman robs villager’s orchard’

Cherishing garden

The Garden welcomes the guests with Royal pleasure. The Garden in art consists of tomb garden raised in its core, flower garden surrounding it with orchards emitting calm vibes. Garden is designed into a way that it fills and refreshes your life. It also has groves and temple gardens which aid rawer natural essence to the garden.

Architexture

The heart of the garden has a beautiful pavilion which takes the shape of a tent which is being canopied with colourful traditional textures and patterns. The pavilion is an open kiosk which allows all sides to be openly supported by lean pillars which are also canopied. This place offers shade and the royal guests can rest under this chill shade. The royal guests can view the surroundings and can enjoy nature like a ruler. This pavilion is considered to be one among the reasons to serve as a symbol of sovereignty.

Poetic Paradise

The artist has created a small utopia via this artwork. He has imbibed himself into a poetic scenario of explaining his thoughts. As you can see, this garden scene contains the happy chirping birds, lashing vines, colourful pomegranate and large plum trees.

Orchards in Iran popular for having pomegranate trees, since all the pomegranates are ripened in this artwork and the change in colour of tree leaves, we can conclude that this scenario happens between September and October. Let’s look at the beauty of colour contrast in this artwork, as we see the flowers are bright red, fading sky blue and the fruit skin change from fading yellow to crimson red. The seeds of this fruit can be used for Persian dishes. Pomegranate fruit is heavily drought intolerant, yet Iran’s dry climate is looking ideal for harvest.

The large tree at the back which rises to the sky is an oriental plane tree which is known as Chinar in Persian. This is an American Sycamore (plant variety) spread widely and commonly seen in most of the Persian gardens. They have large and deeply lobed leaves with flaky barks. The barks will become thick and gnarled by time. This Plant species grows in all climate but it benefits from summer. I’m not going to bore you with any more botanical science, let’s jump into an interesting scenario happening in this artwork

Mischievous Visitor

In this pleasantly calming atmosphere, a noise enters. A visitor in this artwork is seen breaking the branches. He is tearing up all the fruits and destroying natural resources as most humans do to mother earth. This inconsiderate behaviour of the guest makes the owner frustrated about his act. He spreads his hands which denotes why this visitor is behaving crazy. Let’s look into a contrasting scenario.

Kindness and Charity

The scorching sun has evaporated the life of beings while the nature enriched garden rejoices. A figure at the doorway is asking for alms, he holds a support stick in his hand and a plat. He looks lean and sad. A gardener holding spade gives him a large bunch of grapes to serve his dry thirst and hunger. This is very much in contrast to the visitor’s behaviour where he destroying natural resources out of greediness and one seeking natural resources for survival.

Outside the wall, we can also see a father and son travelling to the city in donkey where the father shows and explains about the garden and the son marvels at the beauty of high walls.

The Wall

The walls of the garden are so high that you can’t see the dry land beyond. It limits the Royal guests view only to the beautiful nature, similar to the Government with short sight jumping to the conclusion that everything is beautiful and sane. There is a large gate for the guests to enter and leave the garden.

Kingly Power

The Royal Garden is situated outside the city limits, outside the garden walls lie the harsh and arid surroundings. There are many such orchards artwork done in the folio which depicts the King’s power and control over the domain. This private and secluded space treats its guest with honour and divine peace but also shadows them from the external dismay.

Please do leave your view of the painting. Share this with your friends and celebrate art!

Weigh the anchor and hoist the mizzen. Everyone! Board the ship we’re going to visit another beautiful discovery soon.