A Study of Islamic Period's Canvas-Marouflaged Murals in Iran and Select European Works

In previous studies on canvas-marouflaged murals, some researchers put these works in the group of easel paintings and other researchers categorized them as wall paintings whereas they are indeed the combination of easel painting and wall painting. Moreover, the emergence and evolution of these works have not been studied in particular and mentioned yet, and thus there is not sufficient knowledge in this field. For recognizing these types of murals in Iran, it is better to compare them with similar works done in Europe. The main concern of this study is the similarities and differences which can be identified in the emergence and evolution of marouflage in Iran and Europe. The main aim of this paper is to reveal the similarities and differences in the manner and process of creating these works and also the form of their implementation in Europe and Iran. To achieve this aim, the authors try to find out the technical and evolutionary relationship between panel painting, easel painting and wall painting and then compare them by introducing a selection of marouflage murals in Europe and Iran. The data of this research is collected via field and library studies and comparative-analytical method is used. Comparative findings indicate that European marouflage murals are very similar to each other regarding method, material, process of implementation and final form of the works and, in fact, they were accepted as a special style of mural painting. But marouflage works in Iran (some of which were implemented in Europe) are varied in terms of method, material, stages of implementation, subject of paintings as well as the final form of works and they were not known as a particular style of mural painting.