Centralism, Symmetry, and Repetition in Persian Traditional Arts

Traditional arts are indeed applied arts that have been and still are being made in the course of time، from past to present، in accordance with collective taste and aesthetic sense and on the basis of some regular، rooted and logical rules. Artistic creation in this territory has been affected by visual and contextual traditions and has been used as the transmitter of rituals، myth، and general interests and tastes of traditional society. These kinds of arts، notwithstanding their diversity and distribution، have common aspects both in form and in meaning. In response to the basic question that what elements bind and link these arts together in spite of their geographical and cultural diversity، a hypothesis is proposed here according to which، “centralism” should be regarded as the most striking joint feature of these arts and their common intersection as well. Not necessarily a physical location، this center is indeed a pervasive and intrinsic essence which bears relation to dominant attitudes and prevailing thoughts in traditional society. This research would conclude that the unity and integrity of traditional arts are indebted to a center which is، though sometimes visible and sometimes invisible، always dynamic. In this framework any artwork is evaluated and esteemed according to its closeness to or distance from that center. This closeness or remoteness can be considered as a factor in the evaluation of artworks. By dint of an analytical and descriptive approach، this article pays attention to three important elements of centralism، symmetry، and repetition in the traditional arts in terms of form and meaning.