NEGAREH
Year:2018 | Volume:12 | Issue:44 |Papers Count:14

This study investigates the composition and visual features of pre-Mongol minai potteries (the sixth and the early seventh centuries AH), IlkhanidLustre tiles (Kashan-seventh century) and Kelila-va-Dimna manuscript, illustrated in Injuid Shiraz school (707 AH). Comparing the visual elements of these works of art which have been drawn during different periods, and with different contents and subject matters, this study aims at finding out the similar patterns and continuing representations of ancient traditions, the same origin and the contextsfordevelopment of the similar aspects regardless ofthe two centuries gap between these artworks. Research questions are: 1. Which similar patterns have been continuously used in illustrating these artworks? 2. Concerning these similarities, can we consider the InjuidKelila-va-Dimna manuscript influenced by pre-Mongol minai potteries and IlkhanidLustre tiles? The research method is analyticaldescriptive with a comparative approach and the data were collected through library sources. It has been found that despite the political and social changes as well as influencing different cultures from the sixth to eighth centuries AH, the continuation of some similar pictorial traditions like the representation of ancient basics in the works during these three centuries can be observed. Moreover, interests and cultural policies of the rulers, migration of the artists (especially after the Mongol conquest on Fars), systematic establishment of education and economic contexts such as the development of exchange of goods between Shiraz and the cities where these ceramic objects were being produced (like Ray, Kashan and Neyshabour), might be considered as the reasonsfor the influence of the above-mentioned ceramics on illustrations of this manuscript.

Old Courtyard is one of the oldest parts of the holy shrine of Imam Reza (AS) in which various methods of decorations are used. An important group of these decorations are inscriptions which are installed on the porticos and their pillars. Thuluth scroll inscriptions have the most functions in this collection. Some of these inscriptions are written by artists such as Muhammad Reza EmamiIsfahani of the Safavid era and M. H. ShahidMashhadi of the Qajar era. In the inscriptions by these artists, special visual basics are used toconsolidate the composition of the inscriptions. In this article, it is attempted to ascertain the composition, influential factors on composition such as features of the letters, some of the visual qualities as well as baseline setting, and to identify the compositional difference between these two inscriptions. The research questions are: What are the visual aspects and factors affecting the composition of two scroll-thuluth Inscriptions by Muhammad Reza EmamiIsfahani and Muhammad HossainShahidMashhadi? Which features of the letters of Thuluth script are used in the composition of these two inscriptions? What are the visual similarities and differences in these two inscriptions? This research was conducted as a casedescriptive study; data and images were collected via library sources and interview as well asthe image archive of the Artistic Creations Institute of AstanQuds Razavi. The results show that in both inscriptions, main features of the Thuluthscript, such as verticals, horizontal and curved letters are used in creating important visual forms such as visual song, balance, contrast and proportion to makethe composition. Using recurrent yā , baseline setting, horizontal, vertical and diagonal moves exist in both inscriptions as well. In all these cases, some differences can be seen in the use of these qualities that eventually led to the creation of a peaceful atmosphere in the inscription by M. R. EmamiIsfahani, and a vibrant atmosphere in the inscription by Muhammad HussainShahidMashhadi.

With the arrival of the Lithographic Printing Industry in Iran and the widespread availability of books for ordinary people, folk tales, particularly legends with strange and wonderful events became so popular and brought great prosperity. One of the most popular ones is IskandarnamaNaghali which has been lithographed many times during the Qajar and the Pahlavid periods. This Islamicized version of Iskandar’ sstory, is full of supernatural and legendry beings. With regard to the description of some of these beings such as demons and giants in this book, mythological term Metamorphosis can be used. This means that the appearance and capabilities of such phenomena have been changed. The aim of this study, in addition to introducing one of the IskandarnamaNaghali manuscripts dated 1856-57 AD, is describing and analyzing 6 of these beings and comparing them with two other lithographed versions of the Iskandarnama. The research questions are as follows. What are the unique characteristics of these phenomena in appearance and ability? What are the similarities and differences of such beings with their counterparts? How to describe and categorize them according to the mythological term of Metamorphosis? The method of this research using library sources is descriptive-analytical and the images are analyzedviaPanoffsky’ s iconography. Comparative study of the three copies revealed the influence of the earlier manuscript on the later one, as well as a different approach in illustration of demons in the Pahlavid era manuscript. Moreover, the result of this study shows that the demons portrayed in this manuscript are classified into three different types of metamorphoseswhich are partial, complete and healing.

There is a manuscript of Haft Awrangin Washington Freer Gallery written by Jami which includes seven poems. One of them is called Joseph and Zuleikha from which six episodes have already been illustrated. Considering the variety and scope of the architectural designs in illustrations of the Joseph and Zuleikha poem, identifying and categorizing the designs seemed to be necessary for interested future researchers. This study has been conducted to identify and introduce variousarchitectural designs inillustrations of the Joseph and Zuleikha poem in Jami’ s Haft Awrang manuscript in Mashhad school which is kept in Washington Freer Gallery. These designs are investigated in terms of harmony and relation of their placement in a general space over the buildings of each illustration. Thus in this research, types of architectural designs in Joseph and Zuleikha illustrations in the Haft Awrang manuscript are studied and described in detail. The study will respond to the following questions: 1. The contiguity and repetition of which designs formed the architectural designs inthe illustration of Joseph and Zuleikha poem inMashhad school manuscript of Jami’ s Haft Awrang? 2. What made these designs so coordinated? The research method is descriptive-analytical and the data was gathered through library sources. It is concluded that the artists put a variety of realistic and abstract designs next to each other and repeated them to decorate the buildings. In spite their different sizes, these designs were put together using the colors in a way that they look completely coherent and harmonic.

One of the investigable issues about the study of miniature paintings is type of cloths which is different due to the subject of miniature painting and political, cultural and social aspects in any period of time. The aim of this research is conducting a comparative study of battle clothingbased on illustrations of the manuscripts in the Herat and Tabriz schools and evolutionof battle clothingin these schools through introduction of cloths that have been depicted in the battle illustrations. So the questions are: 1. how battle clothes have been displayed in manuscripts in Herat and Tabriz schools, and is reconstruction of this type of clothing possible? 2. Based on the study of the illustrations, how have the battle clothes in the mentioned schools changed? The findings suggest that artists have shown a reflection of reality of society in illustrations, so we can reconstruct battle clothes in illustrations of the Herat and Tabriz schools along with referenceto texts. On the other hand, study of mentioned illustrations demonstrated evolution of battle clothes at any period and provided the possibility for their hierarchical study. Current study is a historical research with a comparative-analytical approach and the required date were collected via library sources.

Yazd Mosque is one of Iran>s Azeri style mosques, in whichthe implementation of motifs in stucco and tiling is noteworthy. The monument of Sheikh Safi al-Din Ardabili that was built in 753 AD, and several units were added to it during the reign of the Safavids, contains dozens of exquisite themes of various art disciplines such as mosaic tiling, Muqarnas, stucco, exquisite inscriptions, wood carving, silverwork, illumination and gilding. The main objective of this research is a comparative study of the designs in these twoSafavid-era buildingswhich symbolic aspect involves Shiite religious thoughts. Therefore initially the symbolic Shiitepatterns in these buildings, including various types of stars and suns, are selected and then studies and investigated. This study seeks to answer two questions, namely: What kinds of decorative motifs in Islamic monuments are related to Shiite beliefs dominant in the community? Do Shiite symbolic decorative patterns in these twobuildings have similarities with regard to their spatial distance from each other? This study revealed that the decorative geometric patterns (pentagonal, hexagonal, octagonal, ten and twelve-sided polygons)in these two buildings have symbolic meanings related to Shiite beliefs which are similar not only regarding technique, form and appearance but also in terms of symbolic meaning.

Studying the characteristics and the sentiment of the artists who have had the main role in creating the Shahnameh of shah Tahmasp is one of the essential issues that could define and clarify the approaches of the expression of the images in this masterpiece of art. The purpose of this study is to introduce and examine the artist Agha Mirak>s perspective, his characteristics, his status and position. This paper, drawing on the writings of the significant contemporaneous authorssuch as AbdiBeykShirazias well as focusing on the works and life of Agha Mirak, attempts to answer the questions regarding the characteristics and beliefs of the artist and the approach toward the narration of images in the Shahnameh. This paper, studies the artist, using the qualitative, monographic, and historical-analytical methods as well as the theories of scholars and the authors of epigraphs based on spiritual thought prevalent at the time. The necessity of this topic is to present and recognize some of the Iranian Islamic artists. The results of the study indicate that the artist, as a treasury of techniques, traditions and artistic memory with a spiritual approach, represents the images of his period. Mirak has a new way to interpret the heritage of painting in his own period; therefore with this method he takes the language of image beyond verbal expression.

Islamic calligraphy is an epiphany with the mission to express celestial concepts derived from the divine revelation in a material and earthly way; so that the principles governing its form reveal the spiritual truth of unity within multiplicity, and the heavenly words and phrases originated from the holy book and Sunnah narrate the eternal truths. This type of art which is a medium for manifestation of the sacred also has a sacred character itself. Inscription because of its confluence with calligraphy and its potential for manifesting the spiritual and divine notions has benefited from this sacred intuition. The aim of this research is the theoretical investigation of the parameters related to this issue. Its method is descriptive-analytical, in which through library and field studies, it is attempted to enumerate the characteristics of the sacred in the cryptic letters of calligraphy and to explain the necessity and method of the possible transmission of this sacred character from calligraphy to Islamic inscription with an emphasis on the inscription samples of Shiraz Vakil mosque.

Shahnameh of Shah Tahmaspfrom Safavid era and Akbarnama related to the Mongol’ s time are such masterpieces of miniature in the tenth century which not only have the same structures but also identical outwards. This study is aimed to investigate these works with a semiotic approach and based on the concept of dual oppositions that is one of the basic concepts in the structuralism criticism and theories of linguistics and semiotics. In this system, everything depends on the relationship andthe sign as a two-sided unit of its signifier and signified isinfluenced by the culture. The questions of this investigation are as follows: 1-What is the processof meaning production in these masterpieces? 2-To what extent do the signs in the pictures, that arecompared pairwise, grant signified to their signifiers and would make connection to meaning? This project has been performed with a descriptive-analytic approach and librarybased method. Research and study on the miniatures of these two versions show that: tendency to a limited space, priority of signs of culture over the nature, crowding of people, compaction of frames and plans with a realistic view, and relying on structural factors are dominant in miniatures of Akbarnama. On the contrary, characteristics such as displaying in the open space and lush nature, the systematic distribution of the figures, colors and components of an image, twodimensional plan and creating a multi-dimensional space are the characteristics of the miniatures in Shahnameh of Shah Tahmasp. This creates a kind of symbolized narrative as opposed to the descriptive narrative of miniaturesinAkbarnama.

The objective of this study is to evaluate the images in “ Tashrih Al-abdan” medical manuscripts by Ibn Elias Shiraziwho have used figurative drawing to depict various body organs that have been rarely mentioned in researches. Being intrepidly simple, the images present innovations that have no similar example in the eighth century AH. The aim of this study is to introduce and review the images in the book, the origins of these images and analysis of the figures that are stimulating in terms of proportions, simple sketching, realism, and so on. In this context, the following questions arise: Where are the roots of these images? Do these images have aesthetical aspects, and were they influenced by their contemporaneous artistic principles? In this study, descriptiveanalytical and library research methods were used to collect information. This paper studies the roots of these images with three assumptions: 1. the ancient Iran (influenced by Manichaean manuscripts) 2. Greece (which has been at the forefront of medical science) 3. Central Asia (China and Mongolia, the Mongol reign in Iran and the resemblance of these images to the Chinese ones). But regarding the aesthetical elements, the results show that the use of perspective on rank, drawing on color and changing theposition of elements, has helped classification of body parts. Also using the element of imagination and sometimes writing, induce the feeling of mobility. The artist has crossed dominant social and artistic lines of his time through examination of a new method and has helped the scientific expression while maintaining the element of imagination.