The striking grace of Persian miniatures, and by extension, Mughal miniatures, is an aesthetic that has always appealed to me. I do not wish to distract from the effect of any whole by emphasizing only the botanical angles, but at the very least, the variety of the flowers that punctuate many of the scenes are worthy of remark. And outdoing the variety, and the colours is the striking imagination that sets out an identifiable species in an elegance of form that supersedes realism in the same way that a well-polished legend supersedes history. It may not be entirely scientific fact, but it carries a universal truth in it.
The illustration above, attributed to Muhammad Khan (17th c), is a public-domain picture from an article on the British Library's website which takes a look at a few links between Mughal art and European floral depictions. It's an interesting read, and it goes without saying, worth a look at least for the sake of the pictures.
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As I began to think about Mughal painting, I found myself returning to an old question in my mind as to whether Pauline Baynes with her stylized figures that yet seem to move on the page, not to mention the gratuitous flora mixed tastefully into otherwise minimalist scenes, had taken any inspiration from anything related to the Persian tradition. Short answer. . .well, yes. At least once. Flowers and all.
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