The Form and Meaning of the Painters' Signature in "Gulshan Album (Muraqqa'-e Gulshan)" (Case Study: Five Signed Paintings)

Statement of the Problem: 

Looking at the developments of painting in Iran, we have witnessed the spread of the painter's signature or the insertion of his name since the Timurid period in Iran and the lands influenced by Persian culture such as Gurkan India. Among the works of this period, "Gulshan Album (Muraqqa'-e Gulshan)" has a special place because of the direct supervision of Jahangirshah (Gurkan) in the collection of pieces, from the two aspects of the number of signed works and the method of signature, which differs from the Isfahan school. The key question is "In "Gulshan Album (Muraqqa'-e Gulshan)" and in Jahangirshah's era, in which way and in what structure did the painters design their signature and what meanings hide in their signature form"?

To identify the placement method of the signature in Gulshan Album's paintings in terms of form and structure and to discover its hidden meanings which is to reveal the relationship between the composition of signatures in the work, with the artist's motivation in representing his social position and establishing interactive (interpersonal) relationships with the viewer through the signature method.

In the current research, by using library resources and directly observing the paintings and signed margins of the inscriptions in the Gulshan Album, the data was collected; Then, five non-random samples of signed works were selected, and each one was analyzed according to the research objectives by visual reading method based on the three metafunctions of composition, representation, and interaction.

Results: 

 Three results were obtained in the examination of signed paintings. First, five compositional patterns were identified in terms of structure in the signed paintings; Second, the narrative and conceptual relationship between the composition method and the verbal content of the signatures with the social position of the painters in the court and their relationship with the production of Gulshan Album was revealed. Finally, by observing the arrangement of signed paintings in different dimensions, distances, and sizes, the motivation of the painters in interacting with the viewer was revealed.