A Comparative Study in the Idea of Monarchy in Several Paintings of Imad Al Kottab’s Shahnameh from Rudolf Arnheim’s Point of View

According to Pregnanz principle in Gestaltian psychology every visual pattern leans towards the simplest structural pattern. Here, the basic principle of assimilation which includes similarities in size, color, shape, positioning and spatial orientation, all affecting the generative quality of imagination, plays the most significant and influential role. Rudolf Arnheim, a major thinker in this field, questions another precondition under the principle of differentiation. He asserts that similarity is meaningful only when it is linked to division and difference since in the absence of such link, due to the many common features among the visual patterns, any chance of differentiation and recognition is impossible. Through the lens of this theoretical framework, images in the Mongolian Shahnameh, Imad Al Kottab, because of their integrity and compatibility with the criteria’s of the aforementioned point view, seem suited for this analysis. Therefore, this paper seeks the answer the answer to the question that how will the similarities in the idea of monarchy presented in the images of Imad Al Kottab’s Shahnameh be analyzed using Rudolf Arnheim’s differentiation principle? To better understand how rulers were pictured in the Qajar Shahnameh, six pictures out of this special edition will be studied using analytical comparative methods and library research. The result confirms that in all research subjects, because of replacing applicability with meaning, similarity surpasses division and the ability to differentiate is disrupted. In fact, the painter of this edition has pictured the kings by commitment to Fath Ali Shah’s aesthetics and devoid of any personal characteristics and the result is that the concept of monarchy replaces the personhood of each monarch. It is as if all the kings in this mythological literary text are defined, all the while to the end, as a single figure, the ruler, and it is not possible to make distinctions among them. In fact, it can be claimed that when monarchy is described in this Qajar relic meaning always comes before the title and is superior to it. Unintentionally, the painter, committed one-sidedly to the homogeneity in simplification principle, when demonstrating monarchy has left behind the differentiation principle. To do so he has used exaggeration, warm colors, arraying and other useful details, and replaced the various monarchy examples with what it means to be a monarch. As a result, one can claim that, when analyzed using Arnheim’s differentiation principle, the pictures in this version of Shahnameh turn out to be faulted and lead the viewer’s mind to amplify the similarity principle during its simplification process. It replaces all of them with the image of monarchy and ruling and puts meaning in the place of applicability. Moreover, it is worth mentioning that since this paper uses Gestalt’s psychology of visual perception in visual arts, scrutinizes Arnheim’s differentiation principle, and accommodates a scientific and practical theoretical framework to Iranian study subjects, the obsolete Imad Al Kottab’s Shahnameh, it maps new horizons for future researchers who plan to rely on any of these mentioned poles to break new grounds in a world of knowledge.