An Investigation into Qajar Paintings on the Basis of Michael Chekhov’s Gesture Patterns (Case Study: Sani-al-Molk and Kamal-al-Molk)

Gesture is a tool by which a performer expresses his/her feelings, propensity, and personality. According to Michael Chekhov, the performer doesn’t embark on the basis of psychology to achieve his/her character but starts by using movement and Gesture. He alludes to a number of Gestures; Psychological Gesture, Archetypal Gesture, Daily Gesture and Nature-Inspired Gestures. These Gestures are quite rife in art works, and in everyday life. In this project, which has been achieved by descriptive analytics; by using Michael Chekhov’s views about Gesture, the paintings of the second half of Qajar’s era has been reviewed from pose recognition’s point of view and concentrates on the fact that which group of Gestures in the Iranian paintings of that era are recognisable according to Chekhov’s view point? On the one hand, the main hypothesis in this research is that there are a set of these Gestures in the paintings of the second half of the Qajar’s era that have cultural and social background, which influenced their shape and contents. In this research, first the concept of Gesture and body have been considered from the theorists’ point of view. Then, the paintings of the first and second half of Qajar’s eras and differences of these two artistic eras have been studied. Research findings show that all types of Gestures that Chekhov mentioned, is quite recognizable in the second-half of the Qajar’s era because the painter and Michael Chekhov both worked on the human nature, psychology and energy. Accordingly, both approaching towards Gesture is mostly psychological and sociological. Chekhov's approach is based on philosophical concepts based on Steiner's theories, as well as archetypal psychological concepts and the collective unconscious. Psychological and emotional aspects play a major role in the formation of Chekhov's psychological gestures. Also, the painter has not been indifferent to the psychological approaches in drawing the figure and gesture of people and also what can be seen first of all in his works are his social and historical approaches, which were formed under the influence of the socio-political conditions of Iran at that time. On the other hand, the people’s body and gesture in the paintings are closely related to the political, social and religious atmosphere around them, which has been influential in the design of figures and the content of gestures and is the most important factor in making all gestures, movements, behaviors and physical training. The ruling power has created a certain pattern of these behaviors, movements and gestures according to its own frameworks and has rejected other patterns. So people behave according to a defined and fixed gesture pattern. In many of the paintings of this period, factors such as location (indoor and outdoor environment), gender (female or male) and social class have been influential in the design of the figures. Location, gender, and class are very important factors in interpreting physical behaviors, gestures, and nonverbal communication between different groups during this period.