فصلنامه کیمیای هنر
پیاپی 47 (تابستان 1402)

David Hume's reflections on aesthetics and the standard of taste, as well as George Dickie's philosophy of art presented in the form of the “Institutional Theory of Art”, are both based on a social and sociological origin. According to Hume, the standard of correctness of aesthetic judgments is the joint verdict of true judges, which is true and correct in all circumstances due to the lack of defects in the faculty of taste. The institutional theory of art was presented in the middle of the 20th century, focusing on the necessity of redefining the boundary between art and non-art. A theory according to which, granting the dignity of art to an artificial object is done by a person or persons who act on behalf of the artworld as a social institution, and their judgment in granting dignity to an artificial object, in order to evaluate or honor it as a work of art compared to other opinions, is generally accepted and has authority due to its continuous connection with the artworld and delicacy. As a result, the main question of the research is to explore the importance of consensus on issuing aesthetic judgments and valuing works of art on the one hand, and explaining the distinction between art and non-art on the other hand, according to “true judges” and “qualified” people. This research, which was carried out using the comparative method and its data was collected in a library manner, first studies the concept of judgment of taste and then evaluates the relationship between Hume's aesthetics and the institutional theory of art.

The hypothesis of the Sassanid architecture's influences on Islamic architecture has been discussed in former inquiries with regards to the formalistic and decorative congruencies, but the fact that these similarities can be attributed to other periods has been neglected. Architecture as a knowledge and profession has a sociotechnical nature, therefore these two aspects should be assayed in influence explanation in addition to physical evaluation. As such, this study explores these influences in the deeper layers, that is, circumstances of architecture as a part of knowledge and profession as well as building technology of structural elements in the Sassanid and Islamic epochs that have been negligibly investigated in prior studies. The theoretical foundation of this assessment relies on the intertextuality theory, and the data are taken from historical texts for analysis. This study aims to reveal the architecture status and its actors’ position in the Sassanid era by providing a diachronic understanding of architecture and a scrutiny reflection on the construction process to indicate their impacts on the subsequent text, that is, Islamic architecture. elucidating this relevance can assist in boosting or weakening the main hypothesis as well as the origin of the formation of Islamic architecture. The current research process is qualitative, retrospective, and reliant on predominantly Inductive arguments and of an interpretive-historical approach. The results and discussion demonstrate that Islamic architecture is entirely indebted to the Sasanian architectural tradition in terms of its concept, status, and, administrative system but in construction technology scope, although Islamic architecture relies on the previous methods, some alterations have been made in the implementation form and materials to evolve the previous techniques.

Decoration has a concept and meaning beyond adornment and physical appearance, and to understand it, one must identify religious concepts and visual codes. In all works of Islamic art and architecture, decorations have always played an essential role in establishing a sense of unity and sodality, and different visual measures have been used to induce this sense. The Grivar inscription of the Davazdah Imam Mausoleum of Yazd is a thousand-year-old unique inscription with a monotheistic theme placed on an octagonal platform, which can be used as the basis for its analysis. The present article has tried to uncover the visual and formal measures implemented in this inscription using visual analysis, and it seeks to answer the following questions: "Which visual and representational measures has the designer used in the design of the Grivar inscription of the Davazdah Imam Mausoleum of Yazd? How and to what extent has it been used to instill a sense of unity?" In this qualitative research, which was conducted using descriptive-analytical method, and the data was collected through library studies and field surveys. While reflecting on this building, the mentioned inscription, which has been damaged over time, was recreated. Since the overall unity lies in the components, while analyzing the overall structure, parts of this long inscription were randomly selected for analysis. The results of data analysis showed that following the identical form, especially in the geometric and writing system, using small components in each system, following the common linear structure, the space of the same importance on the inscription, etc. are among the most significant visual measures used with different quantities and qualities in the inscription's design, which, as a whole, plays a role in inducing more monotheistic themes by creating a desirable visual unity.

The qābi design, also known as the lowzi-bandi, was a recurring, crisscross design in Persian art in the second half of the 18th century. It was widely used, across a variety of mediums, during the Zand dynasty, adapting to the medium in which it was employed. Although it maintained its overall dual structure of a unifying grid and inner decorations, the design manifested itself differently across different artworks. This study examines the relationship between the recurring qābi design and various art mediums in the Zand period, aiming to identify the many varieties of the design (“soft sign”) and understand how they were adapted to different mediums (“hard signs”). Conducted as qualitative, descriptive-analytical research, the study reviewed the literature as well as Zand-era museum objects featuring the qābi design, and analyzed the data from a semiotic semantics perspective. It found that the design took different forms across different mediums—including glass, textile, lacquer painting, and plaster—adapting to the limitations of each medium. For instance, on loom-woven textiles, the design was more elaborate, whereas on lacquerware, it was almost simplified into its grid. In general, the design and the medium complemented each other.

Determining the value of any work of art based on the number of sales and the reputation of the artist in the world market has always been one of the main criticisms against the valuation system from the 20th century onwards along with the spread of critical thinking in the study and criticism of artworks. Various artistic media, including music, cinema, and painting have been regarded as consumable goods and assumed different functions under the influence of the capitalist system and politico-economic developments. The first moments of the emergence of this phenomenon in Iran go back to the emergence of the Saqqa-khane movement in the 1940s. The present article aimed to highlight the relationship between the works produced under this movement of art and the art market. Based on the concept of the culture industry in Adorno’s thought, the present study provides a critical analysis and seeks to identify factors that caused some of Saqqa-khane’s artworks to find economic and exchange value rather than artistic and cultural value. In this regard, Saqqa-khaneh artworks have been analyzed based on four components of Adorno’s thinking. According to the findings of the present study, the loss of “originality and spontaneity”, lack of “spontaneity and individuality”,“repeatability and reproduction”, and “consumerism of the audience” are among the features that have determined the economic and exchange value in the works of the Saqqa-khane movement. The study findings showed that Saqqakhane artists, by losing the most important characteristics of original art, became an advertising tool, just as the products of the culture industry. This qualitative study has been conducted based on a descriptive-analytical approach using a library-based method of data collection.

According to theory of deconstruction by Derrida, meaning is always defermented and the chain of signifiers have no final signification. The objective of the current research is to show that visual metamorphoses are inherently constructive, unless, a constructive narrative prevents this possibility from occurring. "Elephant Buttons" by Noriko Ueno, "I see, I see" by Robert Henderson, "Are you a stork or a woodpecker?" and "I stand on my hand" by Ali Khodaei were chosen for the research topic, because all are based on metamorphosis of the image and at the same time, they have used different styles in creating the metamorphosis of the image. The present article seeks to answer the question “how deconstruction is formed or not in works based on visual metamorphosis”, with the analytical-comparative method. The result of the present research shows that image metamorphosis can lose its adaptive function under the influence of the narrative structure of the text. In more precise words, the visual narration of the text can postpone the chain of metamorphosing images.