Two Identical Paintings (A Comparative-Impressionistic Study of Two Symbolic Characters “Majnoun” and “Urfa” in the Light of Remaining Paintings)

If, according to Heraclitus, the world is known as the unification of tensions which are manifested in different parts of universe especially visual and written texts, the output of these tensions can be found in some symbolic characters of world literature such as ‘Urfa’ and ‘Majnoun’ as well as in both written and visual texts like paintings. In the present research we have tried, comparatively and from the vantage point of Expressionism based on the fictional aspects of life and death of these two characters (Urfa and Majnoun) in literary texts, to investigate the striking similarities of the allegorical pictures of them, demonstrating that how personal  perceptions are connected to each other in literary and artistic texts. We have found that in addition to the appropriate correspondence in the initial process of symbolization of ‘Majnoun’ and ‘Urfa’, there is another probable relationship between two characters which, prior to the knowledge of their creators, were in the fictional world of Arabic narration of Majnoun and also in pictures of Majnoun among animals in Iranian literature and painting with a life account and examples of Urfa’s paintings. It is due to the background knowledge of Greek mythology and shared astronomical symbols in Ptolemaic system. All of these is not an association and mere copying. Even if we take it as a kind of copying, we inevitably need to approve of similar aspects between two characters in both early Arab narrators and later Iranian poets and painters in Iranian-Islamic literature who did this copying. We have also demonstrated that the unknown creators of such paintings much like expressionistic artists tried to look at the world more from their own feelings and emotions than outer realities. In other words, they devoted themselves in displaying those realities which they appreciated from their own impressions and emotions.