Usto Mumin. The Story of the Boy with Pomegranate Lips, 1920s

Similar to an icon in its composition, this tempera painting contains a key to the entire cycle of works Mumin created in Samarkand, in which he reproduced separate scenes or episodes from The Story of the Boy with Pomegranate Lips (otherwise known as Pomegranate Zeal). The work’s central field is surrounded by border scenes that tell a story:

Scene 1. Town square. This is where the two boys meet. One is carrying a pomegranate platter on his head; the other one, dressed in a dark blue chapan, a satin shirt, and an amber headscarf, has stopped by the side of the road. The pomegranate vendor offers a fruit to the boy with the amber headscarf, watched by a disapproving old man.

Scene 2. Countryside garden. Six boys are sitting on rugs spread out on green grass. One is playing a tambourine while the others clap in rhythm and watch the dancer.

Scene 3. Quiet meadow in a countryside garden. Two boys are sitting on a rug: the one wearing the gold headscarf is playing the tambourine, the one with the amber headscarf is listening, mesmerized.

Scene 4. Garden by the bathing pavilion. Behind the pavilion is a green hill with a dome rising above it. A rug is spread on the grass, on which a boy is sleeping. It looks like he is dreaming.

Scene 5. The boy’s dream. Someone is bathing in the pool. He has left his gold headscarf by the water, which is steaming hot. The boy in the amber headscarf is hiding in the roof and watching the bather.

Scene 6. An empty countryside garden. Two boys are sitting on a rug spread on the grass. The following scene suggests that this must be the moment of a confession of love. Each boy has a birdcage: one is holding his, the other has placed his on the ground in front of him. The cage in the boy’s hands is empty and his friend is teaching him how to feed the bird with his mouth. The boy with the empty cage seems embarrassed.

Scene 7. Same place, same characters. Both birdcages are on the ground. The lovers embrace.

Scene 8. Stairs in front of a mosque. An elderly mullah is in the center, before him an open book. On either side of him are the boys with the amber and gold headscarves. One has turned his head away, too shy to look at the mullah, the other one is looking forward and listening to the elder. The following scene suggests that what we see here has to do with the religious and social legitimation of their relationship.

Scene 9. Festive dastarkhan in the courtyard of a private house. The two boys sit in the center, symbolically united by a niche behind them. Six of their friends, who have taken part in the rite, are sitting in a circle. Outside are three old men and a woman in a burqa. Their gestures show disapproval, surprise, and concern.

Scene 10. A green cemetery. A double grave with a lantern is in the center and a green hill can be seen in the background. “The stairway of sinners” and the blue domes of Shah-i-Zinda are visible on the hill.

The “zeal” in the title of the painting most likely refers to the second border scene featuring a collective ritual with music and dancing. In Russian, the word “zeal” can refer to a collective ritual performed in order to achieve religious ecstasy. In early twentieth-century Russia, zeal was widely associated with rituals involving self-flagellation. In the context of Central Asia, it would usually have stood for Sufi devotional practices, however what we see in Usto Mumin’s tempera painting is clearly not Sufi zeal—a dhikr—but a bacha dance.

As well as the icon-painting tradition, Mumin’s imagery brings to mind the androgynous young male lovers often featured in Persian painting from the Safavid to the Qajar dynasties, as well as Persian poetry from the time of Rumi, Saadi, and Hafez, which was rich with homoerotic motifs. However, the last three border scenes push the boundaries of traditional narratives in painting and literature. The first (the scene by the mosque) can be interpreted as a call for the legitimation of the relationship between the two protagonists, the second as a wedding feast, and the third (the double grave) as a symbol of a life lived together in a happy marriage. Finally, the central element of “zeal” is the portrait of a boy in a white robe, whose gold headscarf allows us to identify him as one of the protagonists of the story and interpret the sequence of border scenes as the boy’s dream of his life, love, and death. He holds a cut pomegranate. Perhaps it is the same one that we can see in the town square meeting scene. The artist lures the viewer into an elaborate game that blurs the lines between the real and the imaginary, defying simple interpretation. 

Boris Chukhovich