An Investigation of Iranian Garden Conception in Miniature, With Emphasis on the Miniatures of Shahname-ye-Baysonghori

Iranian gardening can be considered an artistic expression. Gardening is an art that has played a significant rolein Iranian culture and history. This art was created before the arrival of Islam in Iran. Since the arrival of Islam, it has not only continued to grow and outshine all other arts since then, but it has also attained maturity. Also, painting is an art that has been popular in Iran for a long time and has always servedas a narrator of Iranianculture.Natural elements have a special significance in Iranian culture, thus their depiction in miniatures appears quite natural. Plants appear in every Iranian painting, even if they do not take center stage.Iranian gardening has been used in various forms of art in this country. This study was an attempt to investigate the prevalence of Iranian gardening in Iranian miniatures andexamine the artist’s interpretation of the Persian garden. For this purpose, the miniatures of Baysonghori’s  Shahnameh were chosen as samples of the study. The reason behind this selection was influenced by the close relationship between the miniatures and Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh, the depiction in a specific period, the uniformity in their drawing method, and the availability of this collection Analyzing and scrutinizing the miniatures in this collection showed interesting results of Iranian miniatures, which arethe manifestation of an Iranian painter or an Iranian gardener’s impression of the garden. The artist’s attention to detail and the general atmosphere of the garden are among the most important part of this manifestation. In fact, the Persian garden may be thought of as a collection of natural components, whereas a miniature is a collection of garden elements.