Forbidden and Permissible in Islamic Painting: From Fine Miniatures of the Past to Modern Nudes

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

It has long been believed that in the countries of the Islamic world, the image of living beings, including people, is prohibited by religion. Is it really? On the one hand, artists are, as it were, allowed to depict living creatures, including their own kind, and on the other, there really is a kind of veto that prohibits not only the art of portraiture itself, but the very attitude towards it. Today I would like to shed light on these conflicting speculations.

Well, firstly, when talking about taboo, it means long-established traditions in the Islamic world, according to which the image of deities was in no way allowed. Secondly, it also implies a ban on attributing to oneself the merits that the Almighty awarded the artist. And this means that the painters in no way think that "creating with their brush, they bring something special into the portrait of this or that person", and that they only have to "breathe the soul into their creation - and it will come to life" …

And so - Islam categorically does not prohibit the pictorial reproduction of human images, but only insists that his image should not be deified. For the attitude to the image, as to something sacred, is indeed the strictest taboo. In this case, the Christian religion with its gilded iconostases and the worship of images of saints can be opposed to Islam. In the Islamic religion, it is believed that the deification of a person or animal leads to idolatry.

As for Iran itself, even before the introduction of Islam here, the tradition of depicting various scenes from the lives of rulers and their subjects in miniatures was widespread here. These scenes were often reproduced both in wall painting and in carpet weaving. And in the modern world, many conventions have outlived themselves and many artists in the Middle East prefer portraits in their work. Today I would like to dwell on the work of two contemporary Iranian masters who create hyperrealistic portraiture.

Iman Maleki is a hyperrealist with a certain national bias

Iman Maleki (born 1976) is from Tehran. He painted from an early age, and as a 15-year-old teenager entered the studio of Morteza Katusian, a recognized master of realistic painting in Iran. Later he graduated from the Faculty of Graphics of the University of Arts in Tehran. And in 2000 he created his own studio, where he teaches himself.

In the basis of his work, Iman laid the painting technique and techniques developed by famous European portrait painters of the nineteenth century. Since 2005, the artist has received not only world recognition, he won the William Bouguereau prize, a famous French portrait painter.

Paintings by Shahrazade Hazrati with nuances

Shahrzad Hazrati (born 1957) is a contemporary Iranian artist originally from the city of Ghorveh. Initially, he received his education at the Polytechnic University in Tehran at the Faculty of Architecture, and continued at the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Iran, then Turkey, where he lives to this day.

In his work, the author skillfully combines original painting techniques - volumetric corpus painting, working on the background and soft pasty technique when working directly on the image.

The artist's works are constantly exhibited in Asia and Europe and have great success among fans and connoisseurs of art.

As you can see, the works of contemporary Iranian artists are not much different from the works of European portrait masters. And this only confirms the fact that contemporary art goes beyond religious prejudices and taboos.

The theme of "nude" in the work of some artists at all times has been highly cultivated, so, for example, Alexander Deineka, an artist of the Soviet period, she was almost the basis of his artistic activity.