Document Type : Original Article
Author
Assistant professor, Calligraphy and Persian Painting Department, Faculty of Handicrafts, Art University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran
Abstract
A considerable part of the works left in the history of Iranian calligraphy has been created as Inscriptions, in which one of the most widely used scripts is Nastaliq. Nastaliq inscriptions in Safavid architectural decorations has been accompanied by a lot of quantitative and qualitative evolution. One of the aspects to be considered in these works is the shape of the frames of the inscriptions. The form and proportional variety of them has been studied in this research. These frames are created to make a regular and continuous space; Inadvertently, it has influenced some of the calligraphic rules such as good-establishment (contain “rule baseline” and “rule composition”). The questions of this research are as follows: How many types of frame shapes are used in the Nastaliq inscriptions of the monuments of the Safavid era in Iran? And what effect did the shape of the frames have on the calligraphic rules of these works? In order to answer these questions, the Nastaliq inscriptions of Safavid monuments in Iran have been investigated in both library and field studies. In order to prevent the repetition of similar examples, one of each type has been analyzed in conclusion. The results indicate that these works are in the form of two main types of " monolith inscriptions" and "framing inscriptions". Monolith inscriptions of this research can be divided into two mainly groups, square and altar, and framing inscriptions can be divided into three groups: square, Toranj (a kind of Persian medallion) and other shapes. The first type is classified into the six following categories: linear rectangle, framing rectangle, composite rectangle, linear altar, framing altar and composite altar. In framing inscriptions, the frames can be classified into three groups due to their proportion of length and width: compressed frames, medium frames and elongated frames. Based on the analysis of the samples, the effect of the frame on the good-establishment is evident in cases such as: non-adherence to the baseline, multiplicity of baselines and compression of the line. The limited length of the frame causes that calligrapher necessitated to replace letters, ligatures and words in upper or lower text line. In other words, the calligraphers forced to create zone above main ligature zone. This change in baseline consequence the composition factors. For example, because of adding baselines, the classic main position of ligatures and even words maybe changed. In addition, resizing of the ligatures or dots can be observable in the studied cases. One of the other formal changes in these works is modifying the shape of letters or ligatures and usage of unusual shapes. Finally, results show that Toranj framings are more consistent than rectangular frames in terms of the gap between the text and the frame, and in most cases, have resulted in the good-establishment of the inscription.
Keywords
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