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Babur Supervising the Garden of Fidelity

Folio from the illustrated Baburnama (Memoirs of Babur) depicting Emperor Babur supervising the laying out of the Bagh-e Vafa (Garden of Fidelity) near Jalalabad. Produced c. 1590 in the Mughal imperial atelier during the reign of Emperor Akbar. Opaque watercolor and gold on paper. Victoria and Albert Museum, London (IS.2:22-1896).

Scholarly Significance

Add a second Mughal miniature painting seed, expanding the graph's South Asian imperial manuscript-painting coverage with a garden-and-nature themed Baburnama folio.

Notes

  • ·The Bagh-e Vafa (Garden of Fidelity), planted by Babur near modern Jalalabad, Afghanistan, is described in loving detail in the Baburnama; Babur records planting pomegranates, oranges, and plantains.
  • ·The folio is part of the V&A's Baburnama manuscript (IS.2-1896), one of several illustrated Baburnama manuscripts produced in Akbar's atelier c. 1589–1596.
  • ·No named individual artist is attributed to this folio in the V&A record; it is a product of the Mughal collective imperial workshop.
  • ·The painting exemplifies the Mughal miniature tradition's fusion of Persian compositional conventions with Indian naturalistic detail.
  • ·The V&A acquired the manuscript in 1896; it is among the most significant Mughal manuscripts outside the Indian subcontinent.
  • ·Related Baburnama folios are held by the British Museum (London), National Museum of India (New Delhi), and Smithsonian Institution (Washington DC).