Flowers in The Fine Arts of Azerbaijan

(Iconographic Review)

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-468-6_3How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Azerbaijani art; Flowers; Symbol; Iconography; Roses; Kharybulbul

Abstract

The artistic culture of Azerbaijan in its successive development invariably turned to flower motifs. At the early stages, the religious, and, accordingly, sacral character of iconographic series associated with the representation of floral motifs remained undoubtedly determinant. Ancient cults referring to Sumerian iconography are closely intertwined with Turkic motifs. Along with the motif of the Tree of Life, there are rosettes - symbols of the goddess Inanna. Christian iconography of Caucasian Albania, primarily depicted in architectural monuments, acquired a significant place in the Middle Ages. The classical Islamic tradition, with its concretization of details, largely determined the choice of floral motifs and set the abstraction of images based on sacred geometry and Sufi logic. In miniature, monumental painting, ceramics, on textiles and carpet compositions, along with the complex solutions of Islimi and Girikh, a complex of naturalistic flowering plants is formed. In the New Age period, the character of floral motifs was influenced by the Western tradition, and new types of iconographic rows related to power, heraldry, and social factors were formed. They are reflected in the paintings of the Qajar style. The twentieth century particularly emphasizes the theme of flowers, linking the ideology of Soviet civilization with it. Floral still lifes of that period demonstrate two main lines of development of Azerbaijani art: official socialist realism and mental philosophical interpretation. At the modern stage of history, the theme of flowers, with the diversity of personal choices of artists, acquires a patriotic tone. A vivid example is Kharybulbulbul, a Caucasian orchid, endemic to the city of Shusha, which became a symbol of Victory in the Patriotic War of 2020.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Download article (PDF)

TY  - CONF
AU  - Sevil Karimova Alifattah
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/09/29
TI  - Flowers in The Fine Arts of Azerbaijan
BT  - Proceedings of the Contribution of Culture to Ecological Sustainability (CCES 2024)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 29
EP  - 48
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-468-6_3
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-468-6_3
ID  - Alifattah2025
ER  -