NEGAREH
Year:2017 | Volume:12 | Issue:42 |Papers Count:13

Quran is the most important Islamic text which has led various nations of Islamic world such as the Iranians to apply the best of their arts in decorating it. Islamic era Iranian artists have turned every sheet of Quran to an exquisite work of art with the utmost beauty by using gold. The aim of this study is defining the process of decorating Qurans with gold and the question is that how much has the amount of gold which was used to adorn Qurans changed over the centuries. In AstanQodsRazavi’ s museum of Qurans, the evolution of Quran gilding from the early Islamic era to the Qajar period is clearly apparent. In this research using this splendid source, the changes in decorating with gold is studied. At first few sections in Qurans were illuminated, but in later periods this ornamentation was expanded and the gradual development of embellishments are seen which were monocolor at first and then other colors were added to them through the centuries as the climax of Quran gilding and illumination is in the Safavid period and since then because of the prevalence of lithography in Qajar period, Quran ornamentations decreased. By surveying this evolution, we found out that Quran gilding has had a developing and progressive process in comparison with early Islamic period. This discernment opens up a new horizon for aesthetics of Islamic art and explains the influence of various historical periods. The research is done with a historical approach, using a descriptive-analytical method based on library sources and field studies.

The main issue is to study the quality of semantic implications of God’ s great title in Islamic art and architecture works. The purpose is to gain the secret behind immortality of symbolic language of forms, figures, patterns, and structures of Islamic art and architecture works during different times and places. Among questions are; the quality of emanation of divine world figurative samples in art works, the relation between symbol and symbolic expressions and the reality of divine titles, the relation between God’ s title with emanation of monotheism is Islamic works. Research is analytical-interpretative and data collected by library method and analyzed through deductive and inductive approaches. Among achievements was form-space importance in Islamic art under God’ s great title: symbol interpretation happens through a practical approach and with realization of meaning in person. This issue, from one hand, notifies the amount of approach in Islamic artist to divine facts and from the other hand shows the amount of audiences’ intimacy with Islamic works. In Islamic culture, any natural phenomenon is an emanation of levels of divine titles. Symbolic forms in artworks are figurations of exemplary expressions of divine examples, which artist achieved them in imaginations and express through works. In Islamic culture, everything is a symbolic form and while refereeing to world of divine titles notifies an intuition-divine world’ s relation. Islamic period is an emanation of God’ s title and Mohammadi reality is the expression of this title. Form and space in Islamic art are under God’ s title and monotheism. Among emanation samples of monotheism in Islamic works are Arabesque, Khataii, and geometrical figures, centered principle of space, and emanations of order and harmony.

Mentoring system has long been used as the dominant method of education in different sectors. This system, in the field of art, is mixed with some components and features which are intertwined by morality and spirituality; and apart from transferring technologies and techniques, it has led to excellence in both spirit and mind. The relationship between the master and his disciple was one of the most important factors in the traditional system of art education. This paper tends to extract and discover the most prominent elements of the relationship between the master and the disciple. These characteristics and features, being faded in the contemporary art, have ultimately led to the loss of transcendental nature of art. Moreover, looking for this relationship in the present system of art education can highlight the shortcomings and problems of the contemporary situation of art education, because without any doubt, one of the most important reasons for the success of arts in the traditional realm was this deep relationship and all the texts and references confirm this claim. The main questions are as follows: What elements was the relationship between the master and the disciple based on? How are these elements working in the contemporary system? The methodology contains a descriptive yet analytic approach which is done by referring to books and texts. The final results showed the details of the relationship between the master and the disciple such as mutual rights, ethics, respect, obedience, commitment, purification, love, the master’ s high position, and observing the hierarchy. Also, the presence of these factors in the contemporary system was studied and the findings showed that these factors are not consistent now. This can emphasize on the importance of reviewing the previous values.

In the beginning of the 10th century A. H., Safavids came to power so Shiism became the official sect of religion. Throughout history, religion has served as an important factor in the thoughts and ideas of nations, so in each period, religion has had a profound influenceon culture and art in societies. In the Safavid period, art benefited fromreligious movement and artists were able to reflect the influence of the sect of Shiism, their thoughts and ideas in their art and industrial works. One of these arts was illustration and painting. Since the Shahnamehhas always been considered as one of the most important sources of inspiration for illustrators and painters, it provided an appropriate background to reveal the cultural influences in every period. Shahnameh of Shah Tahmaspwas the first great work produced in the royal library of Tabriz, which its illustrations started fromthe reign of king Ismail I and continued till king Tahmasp’ s period. This study with the aim of investigating the impact of Shiism on the paintings of Shahnameh of Tahmasp, as the first significant work in the Safavid Period, studies theirs Shiite themes, and attempts to answer the following questions: how much the paintings of Shahnameh of ShahTahmasp were affected by the change and formalization of the sect? In form of what elements and in which scenes and events were the Shiite symbols brought into the picture? So among all the paintings of the Shahnameh (258 images), fifteen paintings were selected as statistical population because they had Shiite symbols. Following the study of the illustrations and paintings of this work, the impact of the new religion (Shia) which was clearlydepicted in many paintings of this version can be seen in the form of elements such as the name of Imam Ali (as) on the war flags and upper parts of war flags and also decorations of monuments and twelve caps of Ghezelbash hat. This article is written based on library sources, usinganalytical-descriptive method.

Periodization of the History of Scripts in the First Hand Sources of the History of CPeriodization is the process of dividing the time into smaller blocks, so that each block has its uniformity. Almost all the historians have narrated the history of Iran’ s calligraphy on the basis of political periods or chronometric dating. But, in spite of the advantages, these methods are not consistent with the real evolution of calligraphy. So, we need a method of periodization which is firstly consistent with the visual evolution of calligraphy and secondly, has been developed on the basis of local principles. To this end, in this article the historical reports of calligraphy recorded in old manuals, prefaces of albums (Moraq`s), and biographies (Tazkares) were studied and one of their common periodization methods used for classification of history of scripts, was explained with a descriptive-analytical method. To do this the following questions were answered: which kind of periodization was used more often in the first hand resources to narrate the history of scripts? Based on what factor(s) do the periods change? What are the main characteristics of every period? What are advantages and disadvantages of this periodization model? The basis of the method is the alterations done by the outstanding calligraphers in the styles of their time. Firstly, in this method the section of periods is based on the time of prominent calligraphers whose styles became the norm of their time. Secondly, this method is one of the periodization methods which arebased on the style of the period, since the innovations of the calligraphers are evident in the form of the script. Thirdly, the method can be used for classification of all the scripts, from the scripts which history and prominent calligraphers are known— such as Nastaliq— to the ones we have limited knowledge of their history and calligraphers – such as Kufic. In this method the criterion for periodization is always the dominant norms in every era, thus in narrating the history based on it, one should not ignore the unconventional schools and styles, and norms which are not parallel to that.

The holly tombs and shrines with religious scenes on the walls are called “ Naqshin” (painted) tombs in Guillan region. Most of the religious themes in these frescos refer to the Karbala event – location of the historical martyrdom of one of the Shiite spiritual leaders, Imam Hussain, also known as the Ashura event – referring to the date of the martyrdom. The roots of these traditional frescos go back to the Shiite backgrounds and religious culture of Iran which culmination was in the Guilan region, in the north of current day Iran, during the Qajar era. The present article mostly tends to explain why these frescos have been vastly reproduced in the region. In order to find the answer to the major question, the essential data was collected through library sources and field studies. Then using the descriptive method with an ethnographic approach, the frescos of the holly tombs in the Guilan region werereinterpreted. The results and findings show that these religious frescos of “ Naqshin” (painted) tombs enjoy multiple functions along with the decorative and informative aspects usually ascribed to them, to note one, the oblations and vows for patronage of the renewals and repainting of the frescos seem to have secured the endurance of the whole tradition.

Carpets of the Safavid era, which were often the products of royal workshops, contain various motifs that animal motifs are one of the most widely used cases. Pirnia house of Nain is also one of the royal palaces contemporaneous to this era, which has beautiful murals as well as animal motifs similar to carpets of the Safavid era. By using an analytic-descriptive method, library resources, field studies and analysis of the obtained images, the present research tries to identify, classify, analyze and compare animal motifs of murals of Pirnia house and four examples of Safavid carpets, and tries to find the answer to the following questions: 1. Which are the animal motifs, common to the murals of the Nain Pirnia house and the carpets of the Safavid era? 2. How much have animal motifs in the murals been influenced by the carpets of the Safavid era? 3. What was the connection between the designers of carpets and murals of the Nain Pirnia house? Considering many commonalities between the animal motifs of these two, which have been repeated identically in both cases, as well as similarity in the form, the use of the same spacing and dynamic representation style, it seems that animal motifs in murals of Pirnia house have been influenced by animal motifs of Safavid carpets, for which the career relationship between the miniature painters, carpet designers and painters of the murals and their simultaneous presence in the royal workshops can be considered as the main reason, so thatit seems that both of them have been designed by a single team.

The art of metalwork is an Iranian form of handcraft that dates back to thousands of years ago. Each remaining art piece represents the culture and custom of the people from the era it was made in. The Achaemenid and Sassanid dynasties are two of the main outstanding pre-Islamic eras, from which valuable and priceless pieces of art have been left behind. The art from these dynasties contain various patterns, however it seems that it is mainly the animal patterns that draw the viewers to themselves. The most predominant post-Islamic era in the art of metalwork is the Seljuk dynasty. Metal mirrors are examples of arts and crafts produced in Iran during both pre and post-Islamic eras. The mirrors were mainly round, occasionally with a handles, crafted out of metal, engraved and ornamented with various patterns. Metalwork is also one of the active forms of Chinese arts and crafts, and the pieces from the various dynasties, mainly Hun, Tang and Song are decorated with the uttermost precision. The beautiful and delicately decorated mirrors made in Iran are very similar to the mirrors made in China. This similarity has brought up the questions that whether the origin of the Iranian metal mirror making is China, and what are the exclusive characteristics of each of these mirrors. Furthermore, whether some of the characteristics of the Chinese mirrors are evident in the examples from Iran? This research is historical-descriptive, based on library resources. The aim of this research was to find and show the characteristics of the metal mirrors from each country, based on theremaining pieces of art, in order to ascertain the origin oftheirmaking. The findings indicate that the metal mirrors made in Iran with regard to the crafting technique and the use of foundry methods and hammering of the metal sheets, were widespread in China. The use of the miniaturized and compact motifs, arrangement of the floral sprays, depiction of human figures in various positions, constellations or animal motifs such as rabbit, which is one of the characteristics of Iran’ s art during the Seljuk era, and the circular shape of the mirrors as well as the central handle, were influenced by Chinese art.

Great IlkhanidShahnameh is the beginning of a great movement of Iranian painting. However, the Shahnameh has seen several changes over time and identifying these changes will enable researchers to prevent incorrect interpretations on this work and the history of Iranian art. In this regard, to identify the damages on the body of the Shahnameh, caused byits repair and sell at different times, this study has reviewed the remaining pages and provided the explanation of damages and changes, using descriptive-analytical method as well as the comparison of painting elements, based on libraryresources andthe study of paintingstoadditionally determinethe type and volume of these changes. The main question is with regard to the qualities and causes of the presence of someunusual and unfamiliar elements inseveral images of the Shahnameh. According to the research data and analysis of the above mentioned examples, results show that the damages inflicted during the restoration and repair, include changing the margins, adding heterogeneous elements to images. Style of the paintingsin Qajar era restoration and damages of unbinding and disruption of the structure of paintings and pages, and the improper completion of paintings belong to George Demottes’ period.

The Miraj (Night journey) of Muhammad and the ascension of Jesus are of the most important themes of religious Persian and Christian paintings. The purpose of recounting the ascension of these two prophets in Quran is to honor and exalt their characters as well as to imply to a part of the unlimited divine power. The most important common subject of their ascension is that they ascended with their bodies and souls while they were awake. Methodology involved in this paper is analytical-comparative and its data is collected through library sources and observation of paintings to study the paintings of the ascension of Muhammad and Jesus with regard to the visual and structural elements to identify the aspects of similarity and difference as well as the possibility of mutual influences. One of the main goals of this article is to identify relations between Islamic and Christian arts. Lack of attention to the religious paintings and common themes in the art history of religions makes this study essential. The results of this study show that the structural and visual similarities have not merely originated from the somewhat common theme of ascension, but taking into accountthe later dates of some of the Miraj paintings, emphasizes the possibility that they were created, influenced by the visual elements of the Christian paintings. Despite the fact that most Persian Miraj paintings were influenced by the Christian paintings, in several cases paintings of Ascensionreflect a mutual influence from some of the Miraj paintings in depiction of the Ascension with regard to the elements and composition.