A stroll through the exotic gardens newly installed at the Sackler Gallery rewards you at every turn. Not by fragrance or touch, but by vibrant moments of past lives preserved in East of Eden: Gardens in Asian Art.
In this ethereal haven, you’ll stumble upon lovers embracing upon an ornate bedspread, the mountains of Kashmir rising in the distance. From 1597, it’s one of the collection’s many exquisitely detailed small-format illustrations that reveal a magical story. Originally bound in manuscripts, they’re rendered in opaque watercolor and gold on paper. This one depicts a prince from India’s Mughal dynasty and his wife.
Around the corner is a father advising his son about love amid a crowd of boys playing, men seated akimbo, tree-climbing fruit pickers at work, musician strumming an instrument. This Persian scene from 1556 unfolds in a lush garden pavilion.
Courtiers, musicians and gardeners cultivating fruit, medicinal herbs and flowers prized for perfume fill other idealizations of man’s designs on nature whirring with the vibrant cultural life spilling from inside to the outdoors. A winsome fillip appearing in many paintings is the tilted head; the characters seem suspended in an eternal state of curiosity.
What’s this? A robbery? A visitor from town, driven wild at his first sight of nature’s abundance, ravages fruit trees in an orchard before indulgent villagers. Dating to 1556 Iran, the fantastical illustration comes from “Haft Awrang” (“Seven Thrones”), a tale by Jami.
Commonly presumed to reflect paradise, the four-part garden seen from a “Bird’s Eye View of the Taj Mahal at Agra” (1790-1810) actually demonstrates an intelligent way to irrigate. Surprisingly, these lush tomb, temple and walled courtyard gardens and orchards were sited in arid lands.
Dr. Massumeh Farhad says, chief curator of East of Eden: “Water was more valuable than gold; it was brought over vast distances.” Elaborate planning can be spied in “Garden Scene” (India, about 1610). This archetypal Mughal chahar-bagh — quad garden — includes a pool and intersecting pathways. Look just beyond the garden wall, where a cow turns the wooden gears of a waterwheel, channeling streams through the plots of flowers and vegetation.
The 65 objects include a stone bowl from 14th-century China and a grant pair of six-panel folding screens from Edo period Japan (1590-1640). “Varsha,” an immense and well-preserved 18th-century hanging of gold and silver on black cotton, depicts a gathering of women on a monsoon-season night in India.
Another unique treat: an impossibly intricate jali, a screen of pierced stone, from the Mughal dynasty of 17th-century India. Functional and ornamental, they display floral and geometric motifs. The screens also offer shade from the sun and privacy while providing natural illumination, air circulation and a lovely bridge between interior and exterior living spaces.
Save Mami Kosemura’s “Flowering Plants of the Four Seasons” for last.
This video allegory of the ephemerality of life presents a fusion of traditional imagery — screen painting commissioned for a Kyoto palace in the 1600s — and contemporary time-based media. The Sackler’s first installation piece, its soft parade of wilting and blooming offers a serene respite from the chill of Babylon on the Potomac.
East of Eden: Gardens in Asian Art
On view through May 13
» Venue: Sackler Gallery, 1050 Independence Ave. SW
» Info: 202-633-1000; asia.si.edu
» Related Events: “Beyond the Garden of Eden” curator’s talk at noon on March 27
Middle East Garden Traditions symposium on April 27 to 28
