SimplyAbuDhabi XLIX

A monumental work by Sheikh Shamsuddin transforms one of India’s great decorative traditions into an extraordinary three-dimensional composition of silk, precious stones and painstaking craftsmanship. The Michelangelo of Zardozi T here are works of art that reveal themselves immediately, and others that demand you move closer. From across a room, Sheikh Shamsuddin’s monumental floral composition appears almost painterly: an exuberant bouquet of roses, peonies, lilies, asters and other blooms rising dramatically from an ornate, jewel-encrusted chalice. Step closer, however, and the illusion begins to unravel. This is not a painting. The petals are thread. The leaves are painstakingly embroidered. The highlights, shadows and extraordinary depth of the flowers have been built by hand, layer upon layer, until the surface seems almost to escape its frame. Among the thousands of stitches sit gemstones and pearls — more than 5,000 carats of semi-precious stones according to documentation accompanying the work. It is an extraordinary demonstration of zardozi, the centuries-old embroidery tradition that Sheikh Shamsuddin would spend a lifetime mastering, reinventing and ultimately pushing into a third dimension. Born in Agra in 1917, Sheikh Shamsuddin — widely known as Shams — inherited a remarkable tradition of craftsmanship. His family history was entwined with royal patronage. According to the work’s documentation, his great-grandfather created the coronation robe of King George V during the Delhi Durbar, while his father, Habib Buksh, produced garments for Queen Alexandra and other members of British royalty. Shamsuddin would take that inherited expertise in a radically different direction. Rather than simply preserving the established language of Simply Abu Dhabi | 141