ISLAMIC MINIATURE PAINTING FROM 13TH TO 18TH CENTURY

MAIN DETERMINANTS OF DEVELOPMENT AND FORMATION

Abstract

Islamic miniature painting, even though insufficiently explored, is an extremely interesting part of the rich tradition of painting art in the Islamic culture. The miniature painting offers plenty of material for more complete and open consideration of the Islamic cultural spirit. There is a great number of figurative compositions, performed with magnificent technical skills in incredibly small perimeters, appearing on the miniatures. They answer to the question how is it possible to accomplish, even in compositions freely opened to unlimited imagination of the artist, the works that consistently and undoubtedly give evidence of the fundamental postulates of the Islamic teachings on existence of the One and Only God, the Almighty, the Most Merciful. A development of miniature painting is mostly related to the scripts of scientific and prosaic literature (in the Arabic world) and to the poetic texts (in Persian culture). The early beginnings of the miniature painting can be traced back to the Saljuk period – late 12th and early 13th century. The main centers of the socalled ‘’Mesopotamia School’’, relevant to examples of the Arabic miniature painting (the area of today’s Egypt, Syria and Iraq), were Baghdad, Mosoul and Kufa. The Islamic miniature painting in Persia was particularly developed, where as of late 13th century we note a gradually increasing influence of the Far East (particularly of the Chinese painting). The leading center of the miniature painting of that time was Tabriz, where the first miniatures for the famous Big Shahnamah appeared in the first half of the 14th century, demonstrating clearly visible Mongolian influence. The Timurid epoch, from the late 14th and throughout the 15th century, represents a classical period in development of the Persian miniature. The main schools of the classical Persian miniature of that time were in Shiraz, Yazd and, the most famous of all, a Kitabkhane school in Herat, built in 1420. One of the most beautiful scripts from that period, with clearly visible all the main features of the classical style, were miniatures for the manuscripts of the Indian fables collection called Khalila wa Dimna, on display today in the Gulistan library in Tehran (1410/20). During the Saffawid period (16th century) the main centers of the miniature painting were moved to Bukhara and, once again, to Tabriz, where new Kitabkhane was established under the guidance of a once leading painter of the Islamic world, the famous Bahzad. By the end of the 16th century, the state center was moved to Isfahan, where the new school of miniature painting was formed and Riza-i ‘Abbasi was its most prominent representative. Both 15th and 16th centuries are important for development of the Ottoman miniature painting, which managed to free itself of the dominant Persian influence. The strong realism and vitality, which adorned the Ottoman miniature, are most clearly visible on the numerous Surnamas of the sultans of that time, which lively describe the scenes from their everyday life and work. The European influence on the miniature painting became visible in the 17th century throughout the Islamic world. This was obvious from the choice of themes and motives and the way they were represented. The separate Moghul School of miniature also developed during this period, which actually, in a rather peculiar manner, represents a synthesis of traditions of India and influences of Persia and Europe. One such rich synthesis is miniature painting of Kashmir, which emerged in the second half of the 18th century.