A floral fantasy of animals and birds "Waq—waq" | 23 x 16 inches

 Printed on Epson Enhanced 300 GSM Matte archival inkjet paper guaranteed to last of its colour and brilliance for 400 years. 

A print of gum tempera and gold on paper from the early 1600s of Mughal India.

A magical plant simultaneously brings forth and eats animal life in multiple forms. Playfully rendered, real and mythic creatures ripen on the vine. All stems issue from the elephant, who is about to eat the main branch, while he, in turn, emerges from one that is about to be cut by the teeth of an ibex at the lower right.

This painting would have beguiled courtly connoisseurs who enjoyed discovering visual puns in a royal album. Learned viewers would note that an animal-bearing plant recalls medieval Persian stories about the mythical island of waq-waq, inhabited by half-plant/half-animal creatures.