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- In The Name Of The Most High
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- The origin of the boiling fountain of
Iranian visual arts that pours eternally from the everlasting
source of Divine Knowledge is in the depth of the souls of pious
artists who have painstakingly crystallized beautiful and manifestations
of the truth and what is concealed in the hearts of human beings.
The human beings who are cast away from their divine motherland,
with which they were initially so much in love.
Among these arts, portraiture seems to be so endeared that it
has found it's desired abode in books, accompanying words, particularly
in context of poems, and this celestial combination can unfold
an aspect of the dominion of the profound Islamic culture.
Portraiture is a type of drawing, in which the artist's eternal
model is the perfect face of his beloved one. Then he keeps portraying
an endless number of pictures of that beautiful face on new purely
white frame each time. Each of these fine portraits is a combination
of the artist's imagination and what he has in mind of his beloved
one's face.
That is the reason why we always witness presence of a Divine
Covenant between the artists working in this field with the blessed
ones and the fairy-faced from the heavens above , which is drawn
in the pure framework of color, forms, lines and dots. The outcome
of such a blessed art is a harmonious, pleasant work, in which
the music of human life is merged with divine manifestations,
and the portraiture artist, who is eternally and deeply in love
, donates the sweet fruit of his work at the end of each endeavor,
to his fairy-faced beloved, and signs it: " The least servant
of Thy Throne." The position of servant hood of the beloved
one's Throne is the position enjoyed by the religious artists.
Those who have gained such a rank have reached a special status
in art, whose manifestations in different fields of artistic
activities are different versions of the same story.
The highest position in portraiture art is bestowed on those
selfless artists, who have diminished their "characteristics"
into "selflessness" and traces of their humble personality
can only be sought when reflected in portraits of their beloved
one.
Once this stand is achieved , the seal and signature of the artist,
too, loses their original usage, since the artist draws the heavenly
portraits in a selfless state of mind. And it is not an accidental
event that those for whom this secret was revealed have left
their portraiture works unsigned.
Each of them in turn an authentic presentation of the abode of
man, crystallized in epic, mystical, and moral themes.
Among these works you can spot unique and outstanding portraits
that are beyond doubt recognized as milestones in art history.
These works often bear the names of revered masters, who have
been founders of new methods in the context of this spiritual
art.
Pir Seyyed Ali, Mirakm, Kamal-od Din Behzad, Mohammad Siyah Qalam,
Qasem Ali, Soltan Mohammad, Aqa Mirak, Mir Seyyed Ali, Reza Abbasi,
Aqa Reza, etc., are among the famous and noble names that are
registered at high peaks of the history. among them, the name
of Kamal-od Din Behzad glows more brilliantly than the others.He
was the one who enhanced the portraiture art for good by bestowing
a firm and distinguished style to it. His students, and even
his contemporary portraiture artists, followed his style and
created works that have common characteristics in the field of
Islamic Iranian portraiture.
Yet, the cornerstones of portraiture were set by those artists
whose abstract mentality and unadulterated vision had enabled
them to create portraits that are pure manifestations of the
Celestial Abode above.
They are quite familiar with the "perspective" principles.
and yet, since they regarded portraiture's status beyond external
sense, they never limited themselves to their visual observations.
Their job was portraying a dominion that was the interpretation
of the discourse and the word. Thus, they had to move towards
a kind of abstraction of the objects, which was neither merely
manifestations of the appearance of those things nor contradictory
with their natural form. all the creatures and objects have two
distinctly clear characteristics in portraiture. One of these
characteristics refers to the apparent shape of objects and the
other reflects the inner aspects. The apparent shape of objects
is discernible at first sight. Human beings, animals, plants
and inanimate objects , are all manifestaded in their natural
appearances. They present all their inner and outer characteristics
exactly as they are bestowed on them in their nature to all the
viewers.
But after the primary visual observation and after going beyond
the story-telling function that are related to the whole texture
of those objects, we begin to realize that a deep correlation
exists among all of them, that is very evidently clear and cause
cohesiveness of them all in shape of the object they represent
it is this manner that it defines the unique rule of formation
of each object to the viewer.
Portraiture art gained perfection when it got well acquainted
with the rich Gnostic, epic and ethical literature. In their
initial experiences in this regard, the portraiture artists tried
to employ the image based language of literary works, particularly
in the realm of poetry, to achieve it's own image-based language.
This acquaintance and companionship led to birth of anew style
in portraiture, some manifestations of which are observed in
portraiture interpretations of literary works.
But later on, and gradually, while preserving this precious achievement,
portraiture found it's own independent language for communication.
All the visual art elements, including dots,lines,surfaces,colors,textures,
and ,were used with ultimate skill in order to convey the desired
meanings in this fine language.
The portraiture artists wisely found the secret of portraits
and the key to perfection of their works in the need to move
towards their possession, i.e. "the circle", through
the medium of Unitary Knowledge. The reason for reaching this
brilliant conclusion was that circle could be regarded as a symbol
of monotheism. They found out that all the relationships gained
through working with a compass were correct relationship, which
had an internal unity.
The portraiture artists thus displayed the internal, or the real
characteristics of the objects, which are all inclined towards
one single "Truth" in designing their shapes. They
meanwhile presented the outward appearance, thereby drawing the
created aspect of them.
Simultaneous presentation of the Truth-related attributes of
the objects, which are stable and lasting, and creation-related
aspects, which are transient, has made portraiture art a manifestation
of the Gnostic Islamic mentality, and each portrait created in
this manner displays a magnificent show of the whole "being
and nothingness" of the universe.
The relationship of the elements of the objects used in portraiture
work is also all based on Islamic esthetic rules. These relationships
were referred to as the "noble relationships" in the
past and used in all the Islamic arts, including music,poetry,
calligraphy, architecture, all different types of artifacts,
and portraiture.
By paying close attention to a portrait , we Will realize that
the relationships of the objects and elements are not natural
relationships. Each being is viewed from a particular distance,
from which it's limits and characteristics, compared to the size
of other elements, present relationships that are not natural.
Each object is viewed from a certain distance, limits and characteristics
of that thing, with comparison with the other elements present
in the portrait , defines our general knowledge of that being.
Neither the human beings, nor any of the other elements present
in the portraits have gained so much importance to overshadow
the other particles. even the very minute bushes that form the
texture of the earth have their existential existence, so that
in drawing them the same rules that are utilized in drawing the
other shapes are painstakingly applied.
- These relationships in the sizes, which
lead to displaying an object in the context of a portrait, reach
their perfection in terms of beauty once we get to realize the
viewpoint of the artists. The rules and regulations of portraiture
urge the artist to keep changing his viewpoints constantly and
move in a rotating manner. Merging two different viewpoints,
one encountering the object in question face to thee. and the
other viewing it vertically from leaves the artist's viewpoint
at a special angel from which the shapes are observed at their
most perfect shapes.
Yet, each object, or it's elements , can be viewed from various
angels. In drawing a horse, for instance, the most beautiful
aspect of it is the horizontal profile while in drawing the human
being a three-angle view is regarded as more beautiful and more
perfect.
In portraiture we usually observe that the face and the chest
of the human beings are viewed from a three-angle view, while
the hands and legs are observed from the side. Such a combination
presents the most beautiful manifestation, and helps us establish
a rule that can be applied for drawing a human body in various
different positions.
One of the distinct characteristics of portraiture drawing is
exisistance of an immense amount of energy in static objects.
the dynamic form, while static, makes the object (discharge a
large amount of energy from their inside in an explosively spiral
manner, while not depriving the viewer a chance to observe them.)
This drawing characteristic is gained due to usage of circles
as the axis and foundation of the drawing, because the ultimate
point of it is crystallized in the circle.
Another definition of portraiture is manifested in glory of colors.
In Gnostic Islamic culture , usage of various colors is regarded
as a sign of deceit and lack of truthfulness, unless as a whole
they would present a movement towards a sole source, and their
combination would define their unity. This unity of colors was
interpreted as a colorless world, because at their most perfect
conditions, the colors are all fade into the shape of light that
is the status of the black color and the truth of all the colors.
The black color absorbs all the rays of light and can therefore
be the abode of all the lights. In portraiture, the transparent
colors, with their special relationships, they are applied side
by side of each other , quite unaffected by the dominant color
of the work, or even by the harmonious color--reveals the innermost
part of black color in the work. Enriched with such color combination
, each portrait becomes a rich jewel mine, because through usage
of the most perfect form of each color, the "the essence
of color" is manifested and a combination of such colors
would manifest a treasure-house of lights before the viewer's
eyes.
Besides the drawing and the color, the texture, too, appears
at a higher level than just representing the quality of the objects
in portraiture, so that besides their apparent look, that defines
their natural being, the objects should present their internal
nature. This becomes possible through arrangement of a special
type of dots and lines, known as Noqteh Pardaz (dot professor)
and Khat Pardaz (line professor). This type of texture, whose
elements are the two main elements of the visual arts, namely
dots and lines, from a kind that matches the fundamentals of
portraiture, makes the viewer forget all about the merely story-telling
pictures that have to do with the tangible matters alone, guiding
his mind to perceive it's beauty and admire perfection.
The line element ,too, which is applied through usage a special
type of lines, namely the Qalamgiri form, while playing an associating
as well as a softening role in the works, is a flexible component
at the service of artistic communication.
the special value of portraiture lines and their ability to convey
visual messages has led to emergence of a special version of
portraiture whose lines are independently applied in the context
of Qalamgiri works.
If we keep surveying the precious compilation of the Islamic
portraiture works of Iran, we will succeed to reach a treasure
of artistic sciences, which enables the artist to portray his
desired goals on the frame of portraiture, at any time or any
place.
In contemporary portraiture works we often observe deviations
from the inherited rules and regulations that are regarded as
immortal treasures of the Islamic arts of Iran. Displaying the
energy from within toward the outer layers of the objects, portraying
complicated gestures and natural anatomy, usage of harmonious
colors, resorting to optical perspective, inappropriate usage
of adormants to an exaggerated extent, and above all, weak visual
presentation and falling away from the divine subjects for the
portraiture works, are all among the distinct characteristics
of most of the new works in this field.
Portraiture art that is manifested in two forms of Taz-Hib (decorating
the margins of a manuscript) and portraits is comprised of a
combination of arts and sciences, each of which have emerged
and reached perfection in order to convey certain meanings.
Getting to know these artistic methods and how to apply them
would lead to safeguarding and continuing a blessed tradition
that has roots in our rich culture.
taking advantage of this innate method of communication and the
rich visual legacy in a portraiture art would enable us to transfer
what is concealed in our hearts and our spiritual experiences
to all the human beings, thus revealing the unspoken language
of this divine art to all.
- By:
- ©Mohammad Ali Rajabi (article25)
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