نشریه پژوهش هنر
پیاپی 3 (بهار و تابستان 1391)

In some parts of the history of India it has been reported that the Indian woman believed she would become Sati if she burned herself in the fire of her husband after his death. She believed that, through this, the widow would have turned into the goddess of love and would enter heaven. In year 1010 Hijri, Akbar, the king of India, ordered the Iranian poet “Mohammadreza Khoboshani” who resided in India to convert the love and loyalty of the Indian widow in Sati ceremony into a poem. His poetry became pictorial 3 times around 1060 Hijri by artists of Shah Abbas II’s era. Also a wall painting was made illustrating Sati ceremony in “Indo-Iranian” hybrid style in Isfahan Chehelsotoun Palace. To answer the question whether the Iranian Shah Abbas II and the Indian Shah Akbar intended to stabilize political and cultural relations between the two countries through relying on the common definition of love, loyalty and virtue of the Iranian and Indian women in their literature and art, the analyzing method by referring to historical documents of Sati tradition in India and the poetry and wall paintings of Chehelsotoun Palace can help finding ananswer. The present research shows that regarding Shah Akbar’s order to the Iranian poet for composing a poem describing Sati tradition and Shah Abbas’s support for picturing the story in Indo-Iranian style besides two other romantic themes “Joseph and Zuleikha; Khosrow and Shirin” and locating it in one of the major palaces of the king, they intended to establish integration between common themes in the two countries in order to stabilize their political and cultural relations.

Basic concepts of philosophy and aesthetics have usually influenced the process of creation or dealing with artistic work, especially those concepts which deal with conservation and restoration of easel paintings. Therefore, investigating the alteration of these concepts in 20th century, which led to the development of a new view in restoration of easel paintings, is an important issue. On this basis, the formation of new aesthetic concepts in the easel paintings field is a serious issue which needs in-depth researches. New aesthetics presented new concepts in European societies of restoration. German philosophy besides modern aesthetics of Italy simplified the formation of restoration theory of paintings by Cesare Brandi. This research tries to study the formation of Brandi’s theory in a historical and scientific context. By referring to historical context, this study is looking for philosophical background of contemporary theory of painting restoration and a logical connection in this area. Till now, theory of painting restoration by Cesare Brandi in the international conservation societies is acceptable and extendable.

The development of book decoration in Islamic civilization was mainly under the influence of the Holy Quran’s position in Islam (however, there was undoubtedly the heritage of book decoration remained of pre-Islamic civilizations and transferred to Islamic civilization). Thus, in this article the Quran has been selected as an authentic document for aesthetic analysis of decorations and in this regard the Safavid Qurans can be studied due to the harmony of color and pattern, quality of paper, binding etc and it is clear that a comprehensive analysis of the art of Quran decoration cannot be proposed without studying such elements.The aim of investigating Quranic illuminations of Safavid period is not only gaining knowledge about the influence of past centuries on Quranic decorations of this period but also recognizing the decorations of some manuscripts of National Museum of Quran which have not been studied before. In this regard, of 32 Safavid Quranic manuscripts in National Museum of Quran (due to the restrictions of visiting the archive) 6 manuscripts of the main hall of the museum were selected and the aesthetics of their decorations was studied by applying the descriptive-analytic method as well as using the ideas of great palaeographs of the country.

Clothing has been one of the essential necessities of human being and it is a powerful communicative tool. Due to the cultural diversity of different nations and races, different sorts of dresses are prevalent in various nations and people. In addition, differen treligions cause the development of various dresses which represent a part of their identity. Clothing system is provided by the expansion of societies, formation of beliefs, different social and cultural activities. In this paper, we try to express that clothing system has passed different transformations and accepted cultural rule and symbolic meanings. In explaining its meanings, the specific cultural values of each and every nation can be observed in different social contexts. Therefore, the possibility of meaning multiplication in clothingsystem is provided, in spite of different readings of audiences in various discourses.The main goal of this paper is to express the factors active in the meaning-formation of clothes –in general- which are under the influence of phenomena like globalization, culture, religion, social organizations, media, economy and politics. The fundamental question is how different audiences apprehend clothing in different contexts and with regard to their personal experiences. Hence, the author has considered the concept of clothing(in particular, Iranian dress) as a text which lacks a single expressive form and its meaning varies under different factors and this view is in conformity with the concept of multiplication of meaning in poststructuralist approaches (especially Barthes’ approach). According to poststructuralist viewpoint, every text is created inside its discourse and so never stops. In this regard, Barthes equates clothing system with a text which takes different meanings in different social and cultural discourses. Thus, the emergence of different sorts of clothing causes the expansion of meaning. Moreover, the clothing fashion industry itself is in search of recreation of different meanings in this area. The acceptable values for every individual as well as personal ideology and religious discourse cause different types of meanings. Different kinds of religious, occupational and customary effects cause clothing transformations. The role of social organizations, including family and educational institutions, which act to expand the local or foreign culture, is also very important in this regard. The economical power of individuals and social forces is also effective in meaningfulness of clothing. Policy of Iranian government is also effective in developing special kinds of clothing and related meanings.

The emerging of glazed ceramic technology in middle Elamite period provided an opportunity for reaching a special artistic language which resulted in a continuous tradition of architectural decoration in Iran. Understanding the true nature of these works of art requires serious study of the social life and traditions of their creators.This paper aims to provide a new field for historical and artistic analysis of Elamite pottery, especially glazed ceramic and its technical evolution while studying its place in the context of prehistoric ritual ceremonies through literature and material remains.Comparing the Elamite literature with the evidences of the ceramic figures locating in the temples and monumental complexes shows a profound belief in the ability of these objects in supporting and conceptualizing the architectural space, which is rooted in the epistemological approach of their creators towards the knowledge of materials. Linguistic analysis of the Untash-Napirisha’s inscriptions indicates the Elamite beliefs in the presence of the essence of life in glazed ceramics which is used by Shilhak-Inshushinak in strengthening an immortal picture of the royal family. On the other hand, the fact that the application of glazed ceramics was limited only to decoration of temples of Inshishushinak and his assisting goddesses in managing the afterlife journey indicates their function in the Elamite traditional practices. Interpreting the traditional function and semiotics of these cultural relics would require a broader and more sophisticated definition of the terms “applied arts” and “architectural decorations” than what is currently intended to be.

By focusing on house designs in ancient Iran, this article tries to study eco-design houses.For many years, comfort and climate (with active and passive solar) were the basic characters of house design in Yazd (100 years ago and before). Therefore, this research intends to study these houses. The research results will be suitable for researchers in other fields such as architecture, urban design and planning.One of these ancient houses in Yazd is Rasulain House which is studied in this research. The main research question is how we can demonstrate eco-design in the context of modern Iranian architecture.The courtyard of this house is studied with regard to one or two surrounding story spaces around the courtyard and its solar orientation. Then,eight orientations (i.e. N, N.E, E, S.E, S, S.W, W, N.W; with angle 45are selected and the data is analyzed and finally the best solar orientation is identified. The results show that 37/5 to South-West is the best orientation for the courtyard.

This research aims to beautify and improve the quality of urban space through suggesting behavioral-emotional concepts. It seems that today’s patterns for beautifying urban space are derived from man’s desire for variety. However, the question seems to be “Is it possible to achive complete space beauty only via constructional or formal variety?””Could behavioral elements contribute to urban aesthetics?” This research tries to revive the knowledge of original and local art of town planning through comparing different theories in behavioral sciences, psychology and urban designing.In this view, the two factors of place attachment and sense of attachment are considered as effective in beautifying urban sapces.Research model in this essay is contrastive-comparative based on meta-analysis method. Closed systematic survey questionarie provides our data in this research. In this study, we are trying to investigate the status of aesthetic values in the formation of town planning process. This research claims that beauties of the context can be perceived much better through suggesting concepts like personality as well as applying qualitative strategies such as strengthening identifying relation between human being and his environment.