Miniature styles of the 16th century in the East (part IV)

At the beginning of the 16th century, when the Shaybanid dynasty appeared, new artistic methods and means of expression were demanded. The miniatures of that time are characterized by lapidary techniques, restrained expression, strictness of color composition and presence of a few characters with marked Turkic ethnic features both in their dress; the action takes place within a poor landscape of steppe or mountains, sometimes near a tent or yurt but not within a palace interior or against a background of a garden in blossom. The illustrations in the manuscript 5364 of the panegyric poem “Fath-nama” by the little known poet Shadi, glorifying Shaybani-khan and his actions, presents one of the earliest miniatures of the Mawarannahr school of the 16th century.

The manuscript and miniatures were completed before 1507, when Shaybanikhan seized Herat. Here one can see the same features, which characterizes this direction of miniature art: the miniatures in the manuscript Inventory No. 9109 “Anwar-i Suhaili” are the creations of one of the Tashkent miniaturists. This work is an interpretation of the Indian fable anthology “Panchatantra”, which contains a number of fables involving people and animals. The miniaturist chose subjects from the most enlightening stories in the book. The miniatures are not too brightly colored; the number of figures is small and they are drawn against a background of gently sloping hills and golden sky with clouds. Stylistically they are close to the illustrations of the copy of “Khamsa” by Nawai 1521 – 22 made for Keldi-Muhammad, the ruler of the Tashkent area. Now it is in the collection of the State National Library of Russia in Saint-Petersburg.

In the middle of the 16th century, the interest in the natural sciences grew and this was reflected in the creation of special treatises including illustrated manuscripts. Unique among them is the manuscript Inventory No. 1598 on pharmacopoeia “Ikhtiyarat-i Badii” 948 AH/1541, probably, made in Bukhara and richly illustrated. This is a scientific treatise containing over six hundred pictures. In most cases they are not so much works of art as naturalistic reproductions of plants, animals, minerals and vessels relating to the subject of pharmacopoeia described in the text. In spite of the striking out of all the animal heads by some fanatics, it is still evident that the artist was a highly-skilled draughtsman able to produce fluid lines and precise proportions of birds and animals. He had a perfect knowledge of their species, postures, motions, and in the case of unknown or fabulous creatures (crocodiles, rhinoceroses and dragons) he engaged in his own flights of imagination. The manuscript contains many real objects from that distant epoch – costumes (besides ordinary clothes, a special “warm robe for a sick man”), vessels (white-blue carafes imitating Chinese porcelain, plates, special carafes for oil, simob-kuzacha for storage of mercury, metal utensils of various shapes), furnaces for smelting and manufacture metals and so on.

The artists following the Herat tradition produced the manuscript Inventory No. 3704 “Kitab-i shikar-name” in 960 AH/1553. This is a zoological work and like the previous manuscript the pictures play the role of supplementary illustrations to the text. Meanwhile, the miniaturist demonstrates not only a deep knowledge of the appearance of animals but also of their habits and postures.

Many birds – a martin, a crane and others – are drawn in flight and are exactly typical of their species. A noble horse is finely drawn, a supple lion is in a proud posture and a leopard is perspicacious. All this is the evidence of the perfect powers of observation of the animal painter, whose finely drawn miniatures are reminiscent of the works by the miniaturist Rustambek in the Herat copy of “Kalila wa Dimna”.

You can learn more about this topic in the book-album “The Collection of the Al-Biruni Institute of Oriental studies, the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan” (part five, “Miniature and Calligraphy”) (Volume XXV) from the series "The Cultural Legacy of Uzbekistan". 

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