Studying the Paintings of Haji Bath Tiles in Rasht

Guilan province, especially Rasht city, is one of the most important cities of Iran in the Qajar era. The city became one of the busiest cities in Iran because of its maritime and land borders with Russia during the Qajar era. A city of historic antiquity, location, climate, natural resources such as mountains and forests were far more modern than ever imagined. Cultural interactions with the neighboring countries have enabled the city to maintain its values ​​and embrace modern developments in its culture. Important amenities such as Baladiyah (municipality), modern hospital, post and telegraph, silk factory and public bath are among the important facilities of the city during Qajar Period. Among the amenities of the bathroom is considered one of the most important public places. According to documents, until the late Qajar period, Guilan had 17 public baths. Today there are only three public baths of the Qajar era in Rasht. Two of the three bathrooms, the Haji Bath and the Golzar Bath, are operated by a family of artists and tile makers. The Great Haj Agha Bath, the third bath since the Qajar era, has only a handful of tiles whose creator's name is unknown. The Haji Bathroom tiled by Mashhadi Yousef is of great visual and cultural value. The bathroom dates back to about 132 years. This bath is located in one of the oldest neighborhoods of the city of Rasht, called Saghrizan. The bathroom is next to Rahmat Samiei's house and the bazaar. After field research on the building, what draw the audience's attention are the extraordinary tiles of the Haji Bath. Bathroom portraits include Rostam's battle with White Demon, deer hunted by hunters, two angel species and plant forms. The angels are present in both earthly and symbolic positions. After examining and carefully considering the forms used in the Haji Bath, the main question that comes to mind is why and how to choose themes with the observance of a form by self-taught artist Mashhadi Yousef. Mashhadi Yousef, a painter and maker of Haji bathroom tiles, adheres to the visual tradition and the informal flow of art during the Qajar era; which can be deduced from the battle picture of Rostam and White Demon. The deer hunting role shows that the Qajar visual tradition seeks cultural attachment to the Sassanid Empire era as it was in their visual taste. The floral motifs on the fringed angels have a realistic and abstract visual appearance. Although plant elements are considered as space fillers, the exact form balance between the plant form and the figurative form has occurred. Two angels carrying a basket of flowers have reported the transformation of the angel and their physical quality in the bathroom. The angels are weighty and carry a basket of flowers that are heavy in the shape of hands and body type seen in the pillar section. Smaller angels express a symbolic quality of bath and purity. Generally speaking, the painter is experienced. For this reason, as well as the visual tradition, it has achieved an exemplary quality in which the imprinted image is associated with the functionality of the building and is not considered a tiling adornment. Mashhadi Yousef is perhaps the first tile artist in Guilan who revived the tradition of tiling and tile making in Guilan and passed on to his son, Mohammad Pur Yousef. The Golzar Bath two decades after the Haji Bath is considered the result of Mashhadi Yousef’s tiling tradition. The images created in Haji Bath in terms of quality have no relation to the images from Qajar time in Guilan, which illustrates Mashhadi Yousef's unique feature. Regarding the research background, it can be said that unfortunately, except for a few news sites, there is no precise and scientific content of this valuable bath, and the vacuum created by this research has created a motivation for the author. Hadi Seif, author of “Painting on a Tile”, refers to the lives of tile artists. This book refers to Mashhadi Yousef. In this book, the author has attempted to cover the tile artists' bells. The following article will certainly consolidate Hadi Saif's findings, but take a different path. Research on this monument has been done in two respects. First, using field research as well as library resources led to useful material for description and positioning, and in the second part photography and image analysis by graphical software made the research more scientific and effective. The collected documents overlap with image analysis and complement the research process.