Garden Scene with Princes and Attendants

A beautiful arrangement of forms and richly orchestrated colors, rather than the illustration of a specific narrative, distinguishes this lovely miniature. The romantic fairyland world it depicts is drawn from the work of the well-known Persian author Sa'di. The mystical-didactic writings of Sufi poet-scholars Sa'di (13th century) and Tamu (d. 1492) were immensely popular. Accordingly, miniature paintings based on their verse often served as visual metaphors for a spiritual union with the divine by representing the physical union of two lovers—in this case, two princes.