The Role of Red Color in a Piece of Qajar Pateh, on the basis of Hāj Mohammad-Karim Khān Kermāni’s Views, A Phenomenological Study

Thinkers and scholars have adopted different approaches towards the meanings and concepts of colors. In the conceptual trinity of “viewer (addressee)”, “author (artist)” and “artwork”, if we put the second and third items aside, then the way the addressee would encounter an artwork matters. How such an encounter would be if he/she is aware of Hāj Mohammad-Karim Khān Kermāni’s views about the red light is another issue to be considered.The present article would examine the views of Mohammad-Karim Khān by employing Henry Corbin’s hermeneutic-phenomenological approach. Then, the results of the study and the descriptive-analytical method of considering colors in an artwork would be proposed according to the addressee’s point of view. The article concludes that when an artwork is judged through Mohammad-Karim Khān’s views, we can achieve a sort of personal intuition besides mere observation. In the case study of this reserach, consequences of intuition indicate that when the relationship between forms and visual elements of the pateh (a work of Iranian traditional needlework folk art) and the red color in the background of the work is studied through this scholar’s opinions, it would establish relations with Imam Hossein’s, a grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, life and his martyrdom. Person (addressee) who is aware of such a mentality would unconsciously be directed towards theory of the Universal Perfect Man and salvation through invocation of the Saint Imams.