Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1 Department of Comparative and Analytical History of Islamic Art, Faculty of Theoretical Sciences and Advanced Art Studies, University of Art, Tehran, Iran
2 Faculty of Visual Arts, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Myths and legends, as the aspects of each nation’s culture, have direct relationship with the nation’s creativity. Myth and art are two sides of the same coin and have similar origins and aims. The lithographed book’s illustrations, as an arena for the representation of popular art, add the social aspects to the Persian art. Religious illustration, which is intertwined with myths and symbols, creates some remarkable illustrations in the Persian lithographed books. We can find some notable samples of such creation in Tuhfat Al-Majalis. This book, which retells a bunch of miracles done by holy men, being full of marvels, seems a proper arena for the creation of imaginary beings’ portraits.
This research, by monitoring the presence rate of imaginary beings in the lithographed copies of Tuhfat Al-Majalis, aims to understand the Tuhfat Al-Majalis illustrator’s attitude toward imaginary beings; if the artist fills his works of art by imaginary beings, in order to attract the thrill seeker reader, or vice versa; he avoids portraying imaginary beings; or showing loyalty toward the exact text of each miracle, he just illustrates the characters and elements which are mentioned in the text, neither more nor less. In order to study this, at first, we go through a brief introduction of the book; Tuhfat Al-Majalis. Then, the bibliography of the lithographed copies (the lithographed copies of Tuhfat Al-Majalis which are kept in the Tehran public libraries) would be represented. After that, the introduction of the three illustrators who had signed their works in these copies would stand. And at last, through a comparative study of miracles’ text and illustrations, we will find out if the Qajar artist has created an art work which goes beyond the miracles’ text.
By studing the lithographed copies of Tuhfat Al-Majalis which are kept in the Tehran public libraries, this research represents 22 copies; 8 illustrated and 14 nonillustrated lithographed copies. By doing a comparative study of miracles’ text and illustrated images, the research concludes that the illustrators mostly prefer to illustrate the miracles’ exact texts. There are just few samples of creating an art work which is somehow beyond a visual translation of the miracle’s exact text. In fact, among all of the lithographed copies and dozens of stories studied, just in illustrating 5 miracles the Qajar artist, by omitting or adding imaginary beings, presents an illustration which differs from the exact miracle text’s visual translation. The Tuhfat Al-Majalis illustrator, doesn’t load the visual representation of the religious myth with angels and devils, but he just tries to picture the mythological story in the most intelligible way possible. In other words, each of story characters would be illustrated by the artist, if it is needed in order to create a more communicative illustration.
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