Diversity of Theoretical Approaches in Restoration and Traditional Maintenance of Persian Tile-Workings (Moaragh and Haft Rang) and its Effect on the Conservation of Iranian Historical Monuments

Because of the outstanding place of tile-workings in the Persian vernacular architecture, its conservation has been followed by special considerations from the international observers as well as local stakeholders. The old relation between the historical works and local artists who were responsible for their maintenance and repair for centuries, has been dramatically affected by the drastic economical and technological evolutions which occurred rapidly during the recent decades besides the entrance of new concepts and values which were barrowed from the international conservation movement. This lead to rising of diverse and sometimes contradictory approaches which in the absence of a theoretical framework for their analysis, caused lots of problems in research and practice of tile-working conservation. Analyzing the content of research texts on conservation of tile-working, with emphasis on three decades of experimental works in restoration faculty of Isfahan as the products of scientific studies, this paper has detected three main directions in conservation of tile-workings: (a) efforts made on the basis of the continuity and sustainability of traditional methods of maintenance and repair (b) attempts based on the international modernist trends in conservation and finally (c) those based on laboratory researches for reviving and beautifying deteriorated glazes and historical tiles. Besides discussing the potentials of these approaches in defying and judging the current movements in conservation of tile-workings, the necessity of a more comprehensive approach for conserving the historic-cultural integrity of the Iranian monuments has been evaluated.