THE LOVERS

“THE LOVERS”. 2005. 

Artists: Kahramon Shoislamov, Shorasul Shoahmedov

This work is a creative project of two talented miniature painters Kahramon Shoislamov (1972-2022) and Shorasul Shoakhmedov (born in 1970). Continuing the traditions of the schools of medieval miniature painting, in which the labor-intensive work on producing illuminations for manuscripts was distributed among the miniature painters who served at the palace library kitabkhana, these two authors also divided between themselves the execution of portrait painting (Sh.Shoakhmedov) and ornamental design of this composition (K.Shoislamov).

The miniature is executed on the old silk paper in the portrait genre. The symmetrical composition is conventionally divided into three parts – the central part with a double portrait of lovers and two side parts with single male and female portraits.

The image of a loving couple is enclosed in a frame decorated with an exquisite bright-coloured floral ornament and made in “unvаn” and “zarvarak” style –  traditional decor of the medieval East book arts.

The central part of the composition depicts the moment of a romantic rendezvous of two lovers, sitting in the open air, against the background of a spring landscape with a blossoming tree. A young man in a brown kaba over robe, dressed over a turquoise clothing, holds in embrace his beloved in a bright yellow dress with red over robe on top. On the girl’s head is a white shawl decorated with a tillakosh head adornment. The lovers are seated on a green blooming meadow by a blue stream flowing nearby with rocky banks. The successful construction of the composition using a low horizon in the background creates a feeling of airiness, focusing the viewer’s attention on the main characters of the miniature.

To the right and left of the compositional center of the miniature, in the medallions are single images of heroes – in the right medallion is a portrait of a girl holding a flower in her hand, in the left medallion is a portrait of a young man holding a symbolic red apple. The composition of the work is arranged in such a way that the lovers depicted in the single portraits face each other, while in the central double portrait, where they sit together, their gazes are directed in the same direction.

All three portraits in the miniature are decorated with a fine ornamental pattern “islimi” using blue, turquoise, red, green, black and gold colors. Bright palette of the work, elegance and delicacy of smooth lines of ornamental pattern create a feeling of festivity and cheerfulness.

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