Buddist carvings of the 8th century.

 

 

The drawing in the painting at Varakhcha is harmonious; it transmits the plasticity of the figures and their movements, but the forms are treated in flat tint. Attentive study allows us to see that the final drawing is traced by means of a black or red line, not corresponding, in a great many cases, to the general line of the sketch. In all probability, the painter introduced corrections during his work. The frescos of the principal halls of the noble palaces at Samarkand, as well as at Afrasiab, make a vivid impression. The compositions of each wall glorify the dynasty of the royal family. They also reflect real events but, here too, in an epic interpretation. One of the scenes presents a rich nuptial procession, a princess escorted by a cavalcade and servants holding the wedding presents. Another one presents the king of Samarkand receiving ambassadors coming from their various countries, holding presents in their arms. On the third wall, a boat is featured holding a young Chinese girl who is likely being sent to join the harem of a nobleman. On the river banks, horsemen fight wild beasts. Only a few details of the painting have been preserved. All the frescos distinguished themselves by an elegant research in the drawing, which allow us to think that very high-level artists worked in the studios of the capital of Sogdian. What distinguishes the Sogdian mural paintings of the 6th-8th centuries is that they decorate not only the palaces and places dedicated to the cult, but also the private houses of the town’s inhabitants. At Panjikent a full gallery of paintings can be seen, and one may be astonished by the great number of artists working in this small town. The multiplicity of styles and the artistic process, the infinite diversity of the compositions which never repeated themselves, even for identical subjects, are also very striking. The scenes represented are the illustrations of epic episodes taken from different tales. Among the mythological characters a particular role is devoted to a goddess with four arms, sitting on a snake or a lion, or seeming to emerge from the clouds. There is also a masculine divinity with a solar disc and a feminine divinity with a blue lunar disc. But they are only simple figurants in a composition with multiple personages where men play the principal roles. Numerous compositions relate the exploits of valorous warriors riding sometimes at the head of an army, sometimes alone against an enemy or a dragon. It is supposed that these scenes illustrate the legends of the invincible warrior, Rustam. The scenes of banquets or tournaments, battles and hunts are particularly expressive. All this confers an epic valour on real events and does not at all romanticise life at the beginning of the feudal epoch.

 

Painters often found their inspiration in popular tales or fables, such the tale, known over all the territory from ancient Greece to India, about a goose that laid golden eggs and was killed by its stupid master to make a succulent meal. The artistic language of Panjikent is rich and varied. The palette is sometimes saturated, at other times shadowed in half tone. The battle scenes are full of dramatic tension or built on a quaint rhythm. The subjects drawn from court life respect etiquette, the mythological subjects combine fantasy and reality into a harmonious whole. By the Islamic epoch, ornaments were already important in the mural painting of Central Asia. Representations of living creatures are sometimes present in the pictorial decoration of palaces. Fragments of these paintings have recently been discovered in an edifice from the 10th century at Khulbuk.

 

We know that at the end of the 14th century and beginning of the 15th century, the palaces of Tamerlane at Samarkand were decorated with paintings about subjects illustrating warriors’ exploits and palace life. They were the conqueror’s, his wife’s, son’s, and grandson’s portraits. The paintings of the Abdul Aziz Madrasah at Bukhara (17th century) are somewhat unusual. Architectural landscapes with pavilions among trees are depicted in a style influenced by Indian paintings of the epoch of the Great Moguls. But these are rare exceptions in monumental painting, where purely decorative motives predominate.

 

 

Illumination

 

From the 14th and 15th centuries onwards, miniature painting was prevalent. The manuscripts of the Muslim Orient constitute a specific branch of the arts. Their fabrication required long months of assiduous work, carried out by the calligraphers and artists who took charge of the ornamentation using water-colours heightened with gold. The illuminations covered a full sheet and the margins done by the copyist were particularly refined. Even though the manuscripts were ordered by the higher social class, the miniatures were mostly the expression of the popular concept of “beauty”, considering that those who made them descended from lower classes. An Oriental writer of the 15th century mentions that many artists worked in Tamerlane’s palace in Samarkand. The most famous one was Abdul al-Hayy, a miniaturist from Baghdad. Seeing that he was a master of illumination, one can draw the conclusion that the other artists he directed were also miniaturists. Amongst the enormous heritage constituted by the miniatures of the times of the Timurids in the 14th and 15th centuries, the difficulty we meet if we want to highlight the art works of Central Asia can be justified by the fact that very few works were actually signed. Even when miniature-embellished manuscripts indicated the exact locality of provenance, that didn’t necessarily mean that the illustrators belonged to the artistic school of the region mentioned; their attribution, however, is made easier by the following indications: the Oriental miniaturists illustrating a historical or literary text, drew inspiration from their habitual environment, introducing architecture and everyday objects around them. Local ethnic features were also given to characters who were represented by the costumes of a particular country and period. The Timurids of Mavera-un-Nahr, for instance, orientated themselves mostly towards the surroundings of Turkmenistan in Central Asia. This explains why the characters in their miniatures wear clothes, hairstyles, shoes, and other details in accordance with this context.