What did Juan Van Halen write about Sheki khan palace? Can we believe that the small sized miniatures were painted by an Italian?

Abstract

Sheki khan palace, a historical and architectural monument of world importance was included into the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2019.Both the facade and the interior of Sheki khan palace that the construction dates back to the XVIII century were decorated with the various shaped, plot, geometrical, plant, miniature and allegorical paintings. The miniature hunting and battle scenes which were painted on the second floor of the palace as attracts attention either for their size, placement ,or the topic were investigated by the local and foregin scholars,art critics and reserchers and transformed into the topic of the various articles, books and scientific works. But 142 miniatures which were painted in the main hall of the first floor, in divankhana room of the palace both for their small sizes and being painted within the stalactites which are at the intersection of the walls and the ceiling overlooked. But in fact the investigation of these paintings is one of the important problems for Azerbaijani art. But unfortunately as the mentioned drawings have not been scientifically studied till now some of the experts believe that the author of these paintings is not a person who drew other images, but a completely different, alien person, in short, a European. The reason for this conclusion is a sentence written by Juan Van Halen in his memories. In this article Juan Van Halen”s memories about Sheki khan palace will be analyzed. Will be analyzed extent of rightness of the claims that the author of the white and blue paintings or small sized miniatures depicted in the palace is a European.