Lithographically Illustrated Books A Reflection of Iran's Cultural & Industrial Evolution during Qajar Era

The social evolutions of Qajar era, specially industrial and cultural revolutions, mark the beginning of the formation of a new phenomenon in Iran's painting structure including illustrations of the lithographic books. Although, the basics of illustration in lithographic books are rooted in traditional Iranian painting, the industrial evolution in the country including the advent and popularity of lithography made up the most important technical infrastructures of the production of this new version on one hand, while communication between Iranian and European artists, on the other hand, paved the way for cultural aggregation in illustrational style of lithographic books and Iranian painting in general. The current paper intends to survey the impacts of these upheavals on illustration in lithographic books and the respective outcomes. The main topic of studies conducted for identifying the illustration in lithographic books is limited to historical accounts or visual and formalist analysis without exploring social conditions affecting their production and also there is a lack of comprehensive and systemic surveys made in this field. Therefore, there is a need to conduct independent, systematic studies which not only examine the historical background and visual features, but also fully explain the basic reasons behind the development of this new phenomenon. Examining the industrial and cultural evolution of the time seems to help come up with new findings on the unknown aspects of the illustration of lithographic books including the fact that one of the most important aspects of industrial evolution, or to be more accurate, the advent and promotion of typography, not only led to the development of new techniques and achievements in painting, but also helped promote cultural products such as books, particularly illustrated books. This kind of printed material not only gave a new life to the cognitive growth of the society, but also made the foundation for the emergence of a new and long-life Iranian painting tradition called ‘illustration of lithographic books’ by Iranian artists. In fact, typography as a media that made reproduction of artworks possible played the most influential and technical role in the development of the lithographic books during the Qajar era. In order to make a correct analysis of the process of development and also the style of illustration in lithographic books, a combination of sociological approaches such as reflection and cultural leakage theory seems appropriate as a cognitive methodology because according to reflection approach, the social evolutions of this era, specially industrial and cultural evolutions, were among the important factors affecting the change in the structure of Iranian painting with outcomes such as transition from the wealth of images used in manuscripts to the most simplified lithographic pictures and publication of illustrated books. On the other hand, according to Bastid theory, the expansion of cultural influences of one society to the other, or better said, the combination of European objective style of painting with that of the Iranian cognitive style, led to the development of the fundamentals of Iranian painting and production of works different from the past. In a closer look, various social components such as the intermediary factors left an impact on the structure of Iranian painting. However, marking the extent of the impact of different environmental factors and the range of their interactions with each other is not an easy task, because in practice, each one of them are co-dependent and have fundamental interaction with painting. Such interaction was able to influence the visual arts and in fact, paved the way for its promotion and evolution. Since the reflection theory enables us to identify these foundations to the extent that we could obtain some concrete results, significantly helping to better recognize the subject issue, a part of the theoretical foundation of the paper is dedicated to this theory. This approach is a macro-theory in art sociology which does not need any special methodology to apply and is only a general frame to prove and express that art has somehow been and is rooted in the society, and like other art sociology approaches, it is against any approach that defines art as a phenomenon superior to social and historical determinants and the product of inner evolution of the style, needless of social and historical factors, because in fact, art as the product of society, is susceptible to the society’s conditions and reflects them. Conducted using qualitative-analytical method of research, its data has been collected via library study as well as the study of visual materials. Sociology of art encompasses various theories on the concrete relationship between art and the society. However, in order to make a correct analysis of the issue, a combination of cultural leakage theory and reflection theory seems appropriate. The current study aims at proving that social evolutions of Qajar era not only mark the beginning of a new style in illustration such as lithographic books but has also led to cultural congregation in the structure of  Iranian painting resulting in outcomes such as publicizing painting and putting an end to its belonging exclusively to the elite, creating new themes with new fans, and offering a certain amount of cooperation in a technical culture leading at the end to the continuation of developmental process of Iranian painting.