Naghsh Mayeh
Year:2012 | Volume:4 | Issue:9|Papers Count:9

Using Layer Symbology concepts, a comparative review is done between the images of Chinese Song and Yuan School of painting and the illustrations of Baysonqori Shahnameh. Layer Symbology method is a specific approach to analyze texts including art texts by which various semiotic systems can be read and analyzed. In layer symbology, the system of signs and symbols is considered representing text and the signs are regarded as its different layers. In this study, the symbolic system found in Chinese painting and Baysonqori Shahnameh is read and, laying emphasis on the concepts of layer symbology like the concept of main layer (anchor), context and intersexuality from the viewpoint of this method, the modality of the presence of the symbols of Chinese Song and Yuan School of painting in the illustrations of Baysonqori Shahnameh is explored in order to indicate how "Shahnameh layer", as the main or anchor layer, control the scope of textuality in symbols in the illustrations somewhat enabling manifestation and objectification of the symbols of Chinese paintings. The study also elucidates the influence of the layers of the text on the presence of Chinese painting symbols in the illustrations of Baysonqori Shahnameh.

After the Islamic revolution of Iran, sculpture faced an almost one decade of suspension. Exploring the reasons of suspension and resumption of sculpture as one of the main branches of the widespread visual arts can be helpful to understand its present status and characteristics. Therefore, this paper looks into this important subject by comparing this medium with its pre-revolution trend relying on library sources. The results suggest that due to its frequent use by the royal system, sculpture faces such suspension after the revolution to comply with Islamic Sharia that puts a ban sculpture, aversion towards the west and repudiation of modernism as a western phenomenon. It is then practiced again in line with the values and aspirations of the Islamic revolution. The pre-revolution and the post-revolution Iranian sculpture have similar approaches and the prosperity of Saghakhaneh movement after the revolution can be identified as one of the similarities.

Comparative study has always been a research method for shedding lights on the ambiguities of works of art. The application of this method is further signified if the subject of the research would remain in mist without using the research method. This method not only clarifies such ambiguities but it also illuminates parallel trends influential on different fields of art. The paper at hand is an example of using comparative study to determine the identity of a piece of brocade which apparently contains no chronological or geographical data reflecting the time and place of weaving. However, it in fact represents signs and characteristics which enable elucidation of its vague aspects through comparative study.

As a human related topic, art has undergone changes since ancient times that have resulted in development of different art styles and movements. Modern art is the response of pioneering artists in the western society to the changes resulting from the industrial revolution spreading through the world for over a century bringing about new developments. In various forms of art, these changes have at times had similar and dissimilar effects resulting in different approaches as opposed to the previous periods.Having left behind certain past characteristics in this period, the art of sculpture has also taken on specific characteristics in form of fundamental elements of visual arts.These changes include volume losing domination and the concept of space gaining significance in the structure of the sculpture. Meanwhile the significance of space in sculpture is not spontaneously occurring approach, but it has developed within the framework of gradual changes initiating at the advent of the twentieth century and evolving in three separate phases. Based on descriptive-analytical method, this research investigates the process of space gaining significance and the evolution of its application in sculpture.

The last decades of the 19th and the early 20th century in Europe is considered a crucial era in the contemporary history of the west. Political and social conditions on one hand, and the outbreak of the two world wars at the beginning and in the middle of the century on the other hand, brought about different and unstable attitudes and ideologies which all led to the appearance of various schools of thought and different "ism"s. The instability of the current conditions is followed by the advent and decline of artistic and thought schools, and groups and organizations as a consequence. This ephemeral trend transforms the appearance of Europe all the time.What actually is taken into account in the present article has been tracing the effects of these transformations on the formation and dissolution of well-known artistic groups (in the realm of visual arts) in the late 19th and early 20th centuries up to Postmodernism. What is considered in here in fact has been the historical evolution of the subjects in their social field.

Technological growth and globalization of communications and international markets competition have more than ever highlighted the need to understand the changes that are taking place in various areas of graphic design and other applied arts. Today graphic designers in all corners of the world are after a way to surpass rivals and to enhance the quality of their works and to make them as up-to-date as possible. Identifying postmodern graphics employing modern technology and historical sources as well as its inherent pluralism is a positive factor.The research at hand is an endeavor to identify postmodern graphics and a number of postmodern graphic artists as well as its contributing elements in the international arena to help to understand although in brief postmodern graphics.This study seeks to review the origin and the evolution of postmodernism, its precipitating causes and some theories of it and to identify a group of factors influencing postmodern graphics like the influence of technology and modern processes hopefully to take a step forward in promotion of graphics.

Among tribal rugs, the most famous are those woven by Fars nomadic tribal artists; weavings the patterns of which are handed down from generation to generation from mothers to daughters among a nomadic tribe. Qashqai tribal patterns are objectified by the hands of the Qashqai artist with an infallible understanding of the characteristics of colors with their abstract designs in small woolen pieces. The pattern known as "Muharramat" is exceedingly appealing to the eye with its specific characteristics. The significance and use of Muharramat pattern dates back to pre-Islamic era. Thus this pattern is one the oldest ones in Iranian carpet industry. As indicated in several books, ancient Iranians used these patterns in other arts too and after the advent of Islam, these patterns manifested on ground cloths, saddlebags, pouches and pillow cases. What this study is after is to identify Muharramat pattern of the carpets of Qashqai Tribe in Fars. This research looks into the pattern and design, color and weaving technique of this pattern in the carpets of Qashqai Tribe.For this purpose some explanation is presented on the usage of this pattern in the pre-Islamic art and its association with pottery, clothes and cloths and this less frequently studied pattern is examined from the viewpoints of authenticity, antiquity and beauty. The methodology of this research is that of document analysis and it can be concluded relying on the sources that this pattern has maintained its beauty and application in different conditions since ancient times and it still frequently used as one of the authentic, antique and attractive Iranian-Islamic patterns.

Form in Islamic Art is derived from the dominant concept in Islamic Philosophy i.e.the unity of existence.Among these forms are geometric designs or nodes in Islamic art developing from the main constituents of mathematics and geometry i.e. digit and shape. Relying on the views of traditionalists, this paper explores the quality aspect of digits and shapes and their symbolic functions in the traditional approach in particular in Islamic worldview. The paper then depicts how these elements participate in the structure of geometric nodes of Sheikh Safi Structure in Ardabil and give them a quality and symbolic aspect by matching them through allegory and hermeneutics.

Shamanism has long been debated by many anthropologists, sociologists and psychologists. However, researchers have mostly addressed the religious, doctrinal and mental aspects of this phenomenon and little literature is available specifically dealing with the reflections of this primitive ritual particularly in the art. Taking into consideration that the manifestations of this ritual have given rise to a distinct worldview and certain consequences, this paper endeavors to identify this ritual and explore the evolution of shamanism in contemporary art and the manifestation of this ritual in postmodern art.