The discourse of Sabk-e-bazgasht (The Persian Return Literary Style( and Visual Norms in Fath Ali Shah Qajar portraits

Any discourse constitutes of several propositions and discursive formations that are created by focusing on the political, cultural and social conditions of each era. During the rule of Fath- Ali Shah Qajar (1772- 1834), the dominate literary review discourse; which is considered the very traditional discourse, was formed based o the perception system that was governing an era in which, the royal court was recognized as the producing institute of the mentioned discourse. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the role of the literary discourse of return in images specific to Fath Ali Shah Qajar with regard to the political, social, epistemic contexts and the system of knowledge or spirit of the time.If we admit that until then, Iranian painting and Persian literature have been more or less intertwined; it must be said that as the literary discourse of this period was formed, visual norms in FathAli Shah’s portraits also changed and new features emerged that were not unprecedented in past centuries. In the present study, the authors have attempted to examine how literary discourse led to the formation and influence of king's icons in court, based on Michel Foucault's theory of discourse as a methodological model and an interdisciplinary approach.Studies show that during this period poetry and poetic descriptions continued to be a source of inspiration for painters.Therefore the images of the King became more unrealistic and his aura of holiness grew larger. The king's body also became more intangible and metaphorical.