The Effect of Visual Characteristics of Muhammad Siah Ghalam’s Works on Mojarrad Takestani

Miniature is in origin, an Iranian art and through creating striking images; the dexterous Iranian miniaturists have created fascinating examples of miniatures. The distinctive qualities of Iranian painting consist of richness of color, refinement, symmetry, eye-catching compositions, fancifulness, and demonstrate mystic and romantic approaches of the Iranian miniaturists. Just like any other art discipline, miniature has also been influenced by social and cultural circumstances and developed special and unique characteristics in the course of time, thus leading to the birth of numerous generations of miniature schools. The contemporary miniature is rooted in the priceless treasury of the experiences of the predecessors, and the majority of miniaturists have taken their share of this valuable source of inspiration; therefore, it is evident that contemporary miniature, due to its nature, holds a retrospective view; the advocates of this style have strived to adapt their works to the taste and preference of their era, introducing new qualities in their works on the basis of past artists' experiences. As a result, some distinct features have gradually emerged in modern miniature. For that reason, it can be claimed that the artists and their works have adopted distinctive features from other miniatures styles throughout history. The contemporary Iranian artists, whose spirit, philosophy, and vigor have all been laid upon the foundations of the cultural backdrop of the ancient art, cannot neglect the rich history of their art life. One of such artists of the day who keeps in mind the past trends for creating his works is Ardeshir Mojarrad Takestani, whose method of design is based on applying limited number of analogous colors and a strong sway of sketching. In his artworks, Takestani have made best use of characteristics of line to achieve a special expression.One may claim that due to the frequent practices he made to replicate the works of preceding Iranian miniaturists, one may find the trails of such art styles on Takestani's works to some extent particularly those of Muhammad Siah Ghalam (Ghias-e-din), who was a miniaturist of Herat school. This study aims at delineating the common visual characteristics of the sketches of the two artists in terms of concept, structure and method. Through conducting desk and field studies and the use of data collected (documents, entries and selected images of the artworks created by the two miniaturists), the paper employs a descriptive-analytic and comparative approach to answer this very question that which artistic features of Takestani's works have been most affected by Muhammad Siahghalam's art style.The results of the study displays the recurrence of numerous common visual features between the works produced by the two artists, mostly depicting Siah Ghalam’s influence over Takestani’s sketching and composition.These influences and similarities can be categorized in three thematic domains of two parts: the hallucinating ambiance of the works and focusing on the moods of the faces on one hand, and the structural associations such as the composition and drawing of saddle decorations and paws on the other. Furthermore, the correlation of technique and style employed such as drawing, coloring and the use of parallel structures has been studied.However, it should be noted that Takestani has not been necessarily influenced directly by Siah Ghalam, but it was through the study of the artworks of earlier miniaturists while entirely preserving the originality of his own personal approach that he has created his distinctive style.In fact, the contemporary miniature has adhered to the tradition in which it is rooted; yet the artists of the trend have strived to adapt their works to the taste of their era, resulting in the emergence of distinctive features in modern miniature.Accordingly, we come to understand that such similarities are not coincident but most probably, the art of artists such as Takestani has been influenced by Siah Ghalam.