فصلنامه نگره
پیاپی 33 (بهار 1394)

Emergence of Islam and the importance given to Quran decoration by the Muslims and specifically by the Iranians, enhanced the artist's attempts to adorn the inscription of Quranic verses. Reciters used some signs to specify pauses or the end of the daily Quran reading which were ornamented by illuminators to add to the beauty of the Quranic verses. One of these signs is the Five-verse sign. Since the various styles of illumination in Quran manuscripts have formed a great deal of the country's art, in this study we are going to identify the decorative characteristics of the Five-Verse signs in the Qurans of the 1st-9th centuries of the Hegira. The research method was descriptive-analytical, based on library sources, observations and field research. According to the findings of the study, in the Qurans of the 1st-6th centuries of the Hegira, vegetal patterns drawn from the pre-Islamic era motifs; and a variety of floral sprays and arabesque motifs from the 7th century of the Hegira are recognizable in the Five-Verse sign designs.

The art tools are effective intermediates in emergence of the meaning of a work of art. The types and production techniques of these tools are affected by the artists’ ontology. The art tools and artistic manners are influential factors on the resulting work of art. The way materials are selected for making tools and the commitment to the manners of the work, reinforce the spiritual aspect of Islamic art. Using library sources and comparative analysis of samples of artworks from the world’s history and art tools used in them, in comparison to examples from Islamic art, this paper attempts to indicate the extent of the influence world’s artists’ ontology have had on the selection of types of the art tools. The results indicate that the use of art tools in every phase of the history is in direct relation to the prevalent thinking of that period. Also in comparison to the art tools in non-religious art, these tools have two material and spiritual dimensions which artists cared about in the Islamic art. Besides the commitment to the specific manners of artistic act was regarded as guarantee for the realization of the final goal and the expression of the Muslim artists’ servitude to God through art.

The Gulshan Album (Muraqqa'-e Gulshan) kept in the Golestan Palace in Tehran, is one of the most significant and intact remaining albums from the Mughal Emperor Jahangir’s workshop, though other pages of this album are dispersed throughout the world. One of these pages is the only page of the Gulshan Album kept in the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin which may be connected to the mentioned album. Whereas the folios of this album are kept separate from each other, the order of their arrangement is very important. In order to appreciate and study this manuscript more thoroughly, its separate pages should be rearranged along with other pages. Therefore offering a logical explanation of the facing folios, in the rearranged order of the album’s folios, would be highly influential. Since one of the pages of the Gulshan Album in the Golestan Palace, seems very similar to the page of the Chester Beatty album at first glance, the question is whether these two pages can be considered as facing folios? The goal of this paper is to help identify some of the scattered pages of Gulshan Album and their order of arrangement. Therefore using comparative and descriptive- analytical methods, with reference to the original works, these two pages were introduced and compared in both similar visual elements including ornamentations and depicted motifs, and the text they contain, also the way these pages related to each other as facing folios were articulated. Lastly it is concluded that these two pages related to each other and can be considered as facing pages.

Every Ethnic and regional art is the crystallization of regional rituals, customs, and religious beliefs, which have ancient roots; relying on these values the community can justify its ideas and beliefs. Chaleshtor region is one of the special areas in the field of traditional arts, handicrafts and particularly hand woven rugs. Its rugs have a special place in the carpet world because of the factors such as its unique colors, designs and motifs. Motifs in one of the most famous rugs of this region, Kheshti (or brick-shaped) rugs, have a universal visual expression which are depicted mainly to convey a given content or used as ornamentations. This paper attempts to answer the question - what are the most important influential factors in emergence of the Kheshti rug designs of Chaleshtor? Therefore samples of the most authentic Kheshti rugs of the region were collected based on their antiquity and visual quality during the field work, all the motifs inside the brick-like shapes were identified and categorized, after which their origins were studied. It seems that some of the motifs have ancient roots, originating from – nature, beliefs, cultural influences and the local style. This paper using descriptive method, aims at finding out the most important influential factors in emergence of some of the Keshti rug motifs of Chaleshtor. The results showed that the nature and cultural factors have the most influence on Kheshti rug designs of Chaleshtor.

Nameh-ye_Khosravan is a work of Jalal al-Din Mirza, Son of Fath Ali Shah Qajar, Which was written during the reign of Naser al-Din Shah Qajar. In accordance to this era’s way of thinking, the illustrated manuscript of the Nameh-ye Khosravan is characteristically written in Persian script, the Arabic words and vocabularies are removed from it and the kings of the pre-Islamic era of Iran are illustrated with regard to the Shahnameh stories. This manuscript, several decades after its writing, is considered as one of the examples which indicates the archaistic policies in the Qajar era. Therefore this paper studies the manuscript and its illustrations along with the reflection of these illustrations in the visual arts of the Qajar period. This paper aims at answering the following questions: What are the characteristics of the illustrated manuscript of the Nameh-ye Khosravan? In which type of the visual arts of the Qajar period are the mentioned illustrations reflected? The research method is descriptive- analytical, along with the explanation of the data (the illustrations) and their comparison. The data were collected from library sources and field research by means of documentary sources, note taking and selected illustrations. The results indicate that the visual instances in the mentioned manuscript were influential as models for much of the artworks of this period including architectural ornamentations, paintings, carvings, etc.

Structural similarities in visual narratives of two artistic styles, namely Coffeehouse (Ghahveh Khaneh or Khiali Negari) painting and art/ industry of comic strips as a newborn branch in contemporary world are significant and notable. Employing narrative methods in form of various stories in order to present and portray the story seems to be similar in both areas, but structural and content related functions in these two narrative styles have absolutely different expressions and effects because of the different cultural characteristics. In comic strips, the value of cultural conduction and its pluralization to culturally and politically manipulate the communities is known to be important. However in Coffeehouse paintings, this is exercised without meddling in opinions and beliefs, merely to help the audience understand and appreciate the subject and visualize the event and the story. Results of this study show that the structural distinctions and similarities between these two areas depend on the world view and culture of the artists in each area. In the Coffeehouse painting style, on one hand, the beliefs and limits of the religious iconography and tradition are the main components of the images, and on the other hand, the comic strips are made around the worldly themes with a modern and materialistic functions, devoid of spiritual thinking, in form of stories of “delusion of realism”. Therefore the functions of these two areas in understanding their visual contact with the audience and the society were compared, mentioning and examining the cases separately. The research method was descriptive-analytical, based on library sources.