The Gulshan Album was assembled from loose paintings and calligraphic panels that the emperor Jahangir had collected or commissioned. The diversity of its folios are echoed in the variety of imaginary and observed images on its lacquer covers. Within the landscapes on its back cover are a meditating ascetic, a tame cheetah on horseback, a swooping simurgh, agitated ostriches, fantastically intertwined dragons, and commoners drinking from a stream.
Back cover of the Gulshan Album
India, Mughal dynasty, ca. 1595–1632
Opaque watercolor, gold, and ink with lacquer on pasteboard
Purchase
Freer Gallery of Art F1999.2b