Painting inspired by history

/AzerNews/

By Amina Nazarli

Young and very talented Azerbaijani artist Chingiz Mehbaliyev is one of those who paints by getting inspiration from the history.

In one of his latest work, he referred to the history once again and painted a picture about Shah Ismayil's rescue from the death in his childhood. New picture of the artist is called "The rescue of Ismayil".

The artist got the inspiration from a book of historian-professor Ziya Bunyadov called "The history of Azerbaijan."

The book describes childhood years that Shah Ismayil spent in grimly struggle and his political activity.

The main fact that touched his soul from the book was: "Aggoyunlu ruler, Rustam has sent several threatening letters to Gargiya Mirza Ali demanding delivery of Ismayil. As a response, he put him to the basket and hanged at the tree with dense leafs at the same time swore to the Quran in front of Gasim Bey who visited with 300 horsemen that Ismayil's foot is not on the land of Gilan."

Chingiz said that this story has been first brought into the artist attention by his literature teacher Mr. Tofig.

"I wanted to show that harsh nature of Shah Ismayil is the result of his childhood years," he said.

He went on to say that: "I think that hiding in a basket and seeing the killer who came to take your life and understanding that you can get killed anytime is a very cruel life experience. In my point of view experiencing such feelings in such a young age has left indelible marks in formation of his personality.

"To hang little Ismayil on the tree and to say I swear that his foot is not in this land requires not just a sharp mind and wisdom, but also courage. For that reason, I described Mirza Ali as an experienced respected old man who bravely looked at the eyes of the death," the young artist cited.

Chingiz was born with passionate of love to colors. He was the youngest participant in the international art exhibition dedicated to 800th anniversary of Mevlana Djalaleddin Rumi, organized by UNESCO in 2007.

He took part in the international cartoon contest "Molla Nesreddin, Azerbaijan" and became a member of Azerbaijan Cartoonists Union. The artist was invited to Bartin, Turkey to display his arts and after successful participation he became the member of SESAN ("Serbest Sanatchilar" - Free Artworkers) in 2010.

A year later, his painting "Colors dedicated to Imadaddin Nasimi" attracted the attention of the jury the international art contest among CIS member states and his painting was included in the final catalog of the contest.