My name is ... a nobody?

Currently, I am reading a pretty interesting book from a Turkish author and Nobel Prize winner, Orhan Pamuk. Apart from having an incredible story- three of my deep interests -History, Persia and Art- are all over "My Name is Red".

But this post is not about the book itself, but the idea behind it. Throughout the story, one can see how religious beliefs were holding back the introduction of new art styles to Iran & Turkey. Around 400 years ago, in Europe, individuality of the artistic works were being widely spread. Talking about the fact that one for becoming an artist must posses an individual style which with one look at the art form, you'll know to whom it belongs.

 

At the same time, in the East, art was all about perfection. The miniaturists weren't eager to show who the artist is and instead, their greater focus was perfection of all the forms, lines and colorings. Then, there were few people who travelled to Europe and saw the portrait paintings which had been prohibited in the east and they wanted to introduce that style to the eastern miniaturists- mostly due to the desire of the kings.

The process of welcoming the new style, painting portraits and acknowledging the individuality wasn't that easy. Mullahs and conservative artists talked about the fact that having style is against the religion, because of your desire to be recognized, whereas only God is to be so. And that builds up the horror story of making a secret miniature book for a Turkish king, incorporating the new style and the artists' thoughts and individuality.

A few days ago, I was reading the architectural design theories and came across this paragraph enumerating the human desires:  

• Desire for preservation
• Desire for Recognition: this is a desire for prestige, pride and ambition, social status, physical supremacy, intellectual attainment, personal or civic, result in struggle for position.
• Desire for response
• Desire for self-expression: this is the urge of man to assert himself as an individual. To do things in his particular way (Salvan, 1999).

Religions and some ideologies have tried to go against some of the human desires and in cases the act of desiring itself. I don't want to make any statement of whether it has been right or wrong, but it has engaged my mind in a greater scale; Culture has appeared as a result of answering some of these desires and if they never had the chance to be nurtured, all the nations and countries should have been the same throughout the history. What other things would be eliminated as a result if we fight these basic human desires?  

Salvan, G. S. (1999). Architectural Theories of Design . Quezon City: JMC Press, Inc.