نشریه پژوهش هنر
پیاپی 26 (پاییز و زمستان 1402)

Informational graphics or infographics, as a new way of visualizing information, have a significant contribution to the spread and development of science in today’s societies. Sources in this field have attributed the beginning of infographic to Western scientific books and paid less attention to the rich achievement of Muslim artists in the field of science and information illustration. Visualization of information in a scientific way, in the past, has spread its most basic fundamentals on scientific books and resources, such as books on geography, medicine, astronomy, botany, etc., but the resources written about this branch come from graphics. the background they mention for informative graphics is mostly among ancient western texts and sources, and they have paid less attention to the rich achievements of Muslims in the field of illustrating Islamic books. One of the striking examples of these efforts, which expresses the artist’s structured attitude in all the arrangements of art and science, is the book called “Al-Bulhan”, a great book on astronomy, astrology and magic by Abolmasher Balkhi. By adopting a descriptive method and through library research, this research intends to evaluate 6 drawings of Al-Bulhan from the perspective of the rules presented in an effective infographic. The results of the research indicate that the systems of balance, hierarchy, emphasis, dominance, etc. which are the governing principles of informational graphic design, are in line with the standards of illustration in this version. Achieving these results is a testament to the mastery of Muslim artists on the basics of information illustration in past ages. According to the analysis of informative graphic features in 6 manuscripts of Al-Bulhan book, features such as presenting two-dimensional images, representing icons in a linear form, minimalism in expressing and illustrating images and data, using environmental lines, combining images and texts, using palette limited color to quickly receive information, use of a special numbering code system to prevent the multiplicity of information, classification of audience levels in pictures, narration, variable title and subtitle fonts, use of fixed and repeating motifs, following human images from Iranian painting, balanced text system and image system can be extracted.

One of the most important and challenging issues in Orientalists’ research about art historiography is to investigate the nature and place of Eastern art in comparison with Western art, and how they interact with each other during different historical periods. Strzygowski and Pope were among the most prominent Western researchers who, in the early 20th century, investigated the evolution of Eastern art, focusing on Iranian art and its interactions with Western art. Considering that the views of these two researchers have had significant effects on Western and Iranian researchers in the field of art history, the recognition and analysis of these views is necessary to examine the evolution of Iranian art historiography. Therefore, in the present article, the views of these two Orientalists regarding the historiography of Eastern art are measured and compared with each other. This research is fundamental and theoretical, and a descriptive-analytical method has been used. Data collection in the current research was based on library research. The findings of this research show that the origin, method and approach as well as the sources used by these two researchers were not the same. The results of this research indicate that Strzygowski and Pope have paid attention to the independent and influential nature of Iranian art in comparison with Western art from two different perspectives. The special feature of Strzygowski’s point of view is its emphasis on the influence of the historical flow of Eastern art on the late ancient arts of Western Europe and medieval arts. On the other hand, Pope gives more importance to the examination of oriental art, focusing on Iranian art and emphasizing the formalist aesthetic aspects. Although Pope did not explicitly mention Strzygowski’s influence on his opinions, it seems that Strzygowski’s racial thoughts as well as his view on the role of immigration in the evolution of art history were the main basis of Pope’s view on the superiority of Iranian-Aryan art.

The identification of factors that contribute to “good architecture» is important to many architects, teachers, and researchers in the field. Despite the efforts made to achieve various aspects of good architecture, in some cases there are still various conflicting views. In many cases, designers collect various data about architectural components, and face decision-making problems when designing. It seems that some of these problems are often caused by the lack of appropriate standards, components, and specific value criteria for evaluation and judgment. Over time, architectural experts have presented different views and theories about good architecture, which seem to identify and examine them and can be considered to know the components of good architecture. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to identify and validate the main components of good architecture based on the perspective of contemporary thinkers. It is hoped that the results of this research will determine the basis for paying attention to the criteria and components of good architecture in education and specialized professions so that a desirable architectural design can be achieved. To achieve this goal, the grounded theory research method based on the descriptive and analytical method of architectural theorists’ point of view has been used. The statistical population was found using snowball sampling and content analysis among them was targeted, refined, and selected. In this search, 200 identification theories were identified and investigated in the years 1950 to 2020. Among them, 42 theories were selected that emphasized more on the components and description of “good architecture”. By examining several theories and extracting relevant components, common themes emerged that could clearly define the critical elements of good architecture. The results show that the components of materials, design and construction methods, geometry, physical elements, form and function, aesthetics and decorations, nature and weather, environment, and world of feeling are expressed in the description of good architecture. However, these components have broad implications, the degree of importance and the way each theorist looks at them is different.

The story of Abraham’s sacrifice is one of the common chapters between the three religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and despite the differences in the narrative, the essence of the story is based on one important axis: “Sacrifice”. This scene has attracted the attention of many painters due to its narrative and dramatic importance, and these paintings can be found mainly in the religious or historical versions of the Timurid and Safavid eras. One of the basic questions of this article is: What is the dramatic capacity and pictorial conflict in the images of the altar and what dramatic elements are used for the pictorial conflict of the pictures. Depending on the tense moment of sacrifice, these elements may be focused on tying or suspending or even untying the show. One of the main goals of this article is to read Ishmael’s altar as a dramatic scene, which, like any other scene, is a place where the emotions, doubts of the characters and their conflict with each other are confronted. The method used in this article is descriptive-analytical; And the data were gathered using library resources and viewing pictures on the website of museums and libraries. In line with such a reading of the scene of the sacrifice of Abraham, firstly, the narrative elements of the conflict in this famous scene were identified and then, each element was examined in the statistical community of written images. Some of these approaches help to read, explain and understand every picture as a “text” whether pictorial, literary or theatrical. In the paintings discussed in this article, we witness the dramatic crisis, suspension and unraveling that has been implemented in each picture and the painter has drawn them with the help of the body postures of the figures, the objects of the scene and even the geographical location of the altar scene in each painting. The artist intends to draw a dramatic crisis with the help of the body expressions of the figures, such as Ismail’s closed eyes or hands, or the moment of Ismail’s tuft of hair being grabbed by Abraham. The use of objects such as knives or blindfolds has doubled the dramatic tension of the altar scene. In addition to the presence of key characters, the drawing of the figure of Satan was the artist’s preparation to show doubt in this fearful scene. The geographical location of the altar scene, which is depicted as a mountainous region or a plain with flowers and greenery, is an expression of the altar scene as a dramatic scene or a manifestation of the sacred.

Decoration in Iranian-Islamic architecture talks about the emergence of beliefs and ideals that have been localized and embodied in the body of buildings. Maknoon’s thoughts in these arrays reflect the concepts and beliefs of the spirit of the times. The presence of all kinds of motifs in architecture represents eternal ideas in a conceptual field that have emerged through symbolic motifs. Among the multitude of motifs, plant motifs have played a major role in the decorations of Iranian Islamic architecture. The cypress pattern is one of the ancient symbols that has always been manifested in various forms in the buildings of Iran from the ancient times to the Islamic era. Due to the rich content of this motif in the native architecture of Mazandaran, many and original examples of it can be seen on the structure of buildings, which indicates the valuable position of this symbol among the people of the region. The current research has been carried out with the aim of discovering the hidden and semantic layers of the role of cedar in the architecture of Mazandaran during the Qajar era, and it analyzes 18 Qajar buildings of this region with a developmental excavation based on a qualitative method and a descriptive-analytical approach. The authors are trying to answer this question by using documentary and field studies, what are the hidden and semantic layers of the role of cedar in the architectural decorations of Mazandaran during the Qajar period? The findings show that the mental motifs of the cypress pattern originated from mythological narratives, ritual beliefs and religious beliefs of the people of the region, and in combination with motifs such as animal, vegetable, geometric, asemani and calligraphy, according to the use of Qajar buildings in Mazandaran, have been expressed in the form of concepts such as fertility, blessing, immortality, freedom, uprightness and rebirth, and artists have used the symbolic aspects of this motif. Furthermore, the conscious selection of other motifs in combination with it has made a wonderful combination of pictorial codes and exemplary images objectified by using various techniques.

The term “kitsch” in the 1860s to the 1870s was used by the painters and art dealers of Munich in order to present weak works of art. But after the first decades of the 20th century, kitsch became an international term. On the other hand, Andy Warhol was a leading American artist, writer, photographer and filmmaker and one of the founders of Pop Art in the 1950s. In the United States, he was one of the most well-known figures of Pop Art and had avant-garde ideas. The purpose of this research is to expand the concept of kitsch in art and to analyze the typological concept of kitsch in the works of Andy Warhol.The main research question is how to analyze the typology of this concept in the works of Andy Warhol. In this regard, the research method is based on qualitative content analysis, using coding with an inductive approach. In this research, firstly, the terminology and genealogy of the concept of “kitsch”, then, the opinions raised about the aforementioned word have been examined and an analytical classification of these opinions has been given. Following that, in order to understand the ways of producing kitsch in the work, a typological analysis of the concept of kitsch in Andy Warhol’s works has been done. The results of the research show that kitsch always refers to the concept of “aesthetic inadequacy”. Furthermore, in this era, the work of art often becomes a mere commodity. The work of art becomes an everyday thing and the everyday thing becomes art. In addition, two types of kitsch based on content and kitsch based on form can be explained in Warhol’s works. The content-based kitsch strategy includes the representation of the banal and the reproduction of everyday images, and the form-based kitsch strategy includes the banal technique, collage, reference distortion, accumulation and repetition.