Original Article
Shahabeddin Adel; Aram Mohamadi; Mohammad Reza Moridi
Abstract
The history of contemporary Iranian photography has so far largely focused on the description of political and social events and their impact on the photography trend. While the description of this process may not be chronological, it must also study the developments of image and visual language of photograph, ...
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The history of contemporary Iranian photography has so far largely focused on the description of political and social events and their impact on the photography trend. While the description of this process may not be chronological, it must also study the developments of image and visual language of photograph, which itself has been changing along with politics and social life. To this end, in the present article, David Bolter and Richard Grusin's theory of the dual logic of "immediacy" and "hypermediacy" is adopted as an analytical approach.Bolter and Grusin, have categorized media into a spectrum ranging from Hypermediacy to Immediacy. They believe that from Renaissance onward media have had a development and inclination towards immediacy i.e. they have tried to present to their audience a more tangible and accessible realm. Along the above-mentioned spectrum the following could be enumerated; Perspective Painting, Photography, Cinema, Television and Digital Media. The movement towards immediacy or in fact the fluctuation between immediacy and hypermediacy has occurred within each medium as well.The result shows: From the 1980s to the 2000s, photography has changed from “immediacy” to “hypermediacy”, and from “appropriating outer reality” to “reflecting media reality.” Influenced by the Revolution and the War of the 1980s, photography was subdued by the outer reality, became but a channel for transfer, and itself had no opportunity and inclination for self-revelation; which means that in this period, the logic of immediacy was dominant. Photography aims to inform and arouse the audience by creating and strengthening a sense of facing the real time and place. In this decade, the understanding of photography was based on the appropriating outer reality, and the features of photographic imagery stemmed from the structure of reality, but in the following decades, the role of the media in reflecting reality is highlighted, and the experience of the photograph happens with the attitude that we encounter, not with reality, but with mediated and mediatized reality (organized with media), and in some cases only with the media itself. In 1990s, When the social and political upheavals of the mid-1980s had subsided and photographers heeded ordinary subjects in their surroundings, the expressive features of the photographer (style) and the visual characteristics of photos (form) were stressed further, and the medium got ample room for self-expression. In this decade, the academic environment of arts, among other factors, contributed to the logic of hypermediacy as well as immediacy. The new photography approach of the late 1990s was influenced by the political and social atmosphere and transboundary relations in photography. The increase in arts and photography opinion articles, upgrading photography education to the masters degree, and emphasizing the theoretical field have guided photography toward thought-oriented and conceptual approaches, and in turn, self-reflexivity and self-awareness (representations of hypermediacy). In the 2000s, largely influenced by new approaches to photography in the West and with greater attention to theoretical studies of art, photography shifted to self-contemplation and self-reference. This study is descriptive, analytical and qualitative, and using library research.
Original Article
Alireza Shaykhi; Elaheh Rezanejad yazdi,; Atiyeh Jahanian,
Abstract
Rings have evolved over the centuries with various functions, such as ring, decorative, religious or religious, in people's lives. Rings are one of the exquisite and valuable examples in the art of metalworking that have been made in a variety of forms with a particular style in Iranian history. The ...
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Rings have evolved over the centuries with various functions, such as ring, decorative, religious or religious, in people's lives. Rings are one of the exquisite and valuable examples in the art of metalworking that have been made in a variety of forms with a particular style in Iranian history. The present study seeks to identify the form, technique and ornamentation of the rings in three periods of Seljuk, Timurid, and Safavid studies by examining the remnants of rings. So what has the evolution of the rings seen in the form and structure of these three historical periods? And the motifs and inscriptions used reflect what social and religious change in the society at that time? The research approach is qualitative and the research method is descriptive and analytical. Information has been collected by library method, reference to written sources and field method. Qualitative or purposeful sampling method was used for analyzing and achieving the results. Sixty-four rings were studied: twenty-two rings from the Seljuk period, twenty-three rings from the Timurid period, and nineteen rings from the Safavid periodThe investigations made in this research show that the rings in the Seljuk era were a mixture of Sassanid art and Turkish culture dominated by exquisite styles and geometrical forms with delicate animal and human motifs that were very new to the Islamic period and the techniques of construction Casting and sheeting were popular. The Timurid era is an emerging era in making rings with new styles in the Islamic era. The cultural exchanges between China and the Timurid court conveyed elements such as the role of the dragon and the jade stone, then its entry into the art of making the rings of this age and the combination and application of the two (dragon, jade) to create one of the symbols of the power of this lightweight Marie or Became a dragon. Inscriptions in ornamentation of the Timurid rings show a simplification of ornamentation. The inscriptions carved in this period are often in Kufic script and contain themes such as divine names, names of imams and Persian poems that illustrate the influence of this valuable art on social developments and attention to objects. And there is an Iranian in Timurid rule. The light-hearted indentations and the use of jade stone with the inscriptions of persons and claims made their mark on the rings of this period. The Safavid era can be seen from the perspective of Timurid art in the making of a ring with the same style and past, but in the midst of this era, European trade and the presence of European jewelers in court and acquiring experience and knowledge of jewelery techniques had little effect on this Iranian art. Negin Turquoise was very welcomed in this era, and the historiography, the name of the engravers and the names of the Imams became very common, emphasizing the name of Imam Ali (PBUH). In this age, the third and nastaliq lines are abundantly displayed in the ornaments of rings.
Original Article
Farhad Khosravi Bizhaem
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 ...
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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.
Original Article
Abdullah Aghaie
Abstract
Following the ongoing Iran-Ottoman wars in the early 17th century, a group of Armenians migrated to Iran from their homeland at the command of Shah Abbas. These Armenians mostly settled in New Julfa in Isfahan. The production of illustrated copies has always been important for Armenians, but it has been ...
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Following the ongoing Iran-Ottoman wars in the early 17th century, a group of Armenians migrated to Iran from their homeland at the command of Shah Abbas. These Armenians mostly settled in New Julfa in Isfahan. The production of illustrated copies has always been important for Armenians, but it has been doubly important for Armenian immigrants. Because in this way and using various styles, they showed their connections with their predecessors. For this reason, the paintings produced in Julfa during the seventeenth century have a considerable stylistic diversity. Gradually, by the end of the seventeenth century, the stylistic unity of these works also increased. In a way, the Julfa School of painting can be considered as the last flourishing of Armenian painting before the decline. The purpose of this study is to investigate the common foundations of the application of "points of view", and the space creation based on these points of view in the paintings of New Julfa in the seventeenth century. This research seeks to analyze how the points of view and construction of a visual space have been combined in the miniature of this school. The concept of "Reverse Perspective", as a form of perspective was employed to analyze the paintings, which is one of the key concept of analyzing visual point of view by Lev Zhegin. For this purpose, miniature painting of this school were examined using a descriptive-analytical method. These paintings were selected from the influential Armenian stylists of that period from the beginning to the end of the seventeenth century, so that they could show the tendencies and stylistic diversity of that school in that period. Thus, the works of Yakob of julfa, Mesrop of Xizan, Hayrapet of julfa, Martiros the priest, Malnazar and Aghapir. Examination of these miniatures revealed that orthogonals in the representation of objects converged not on one horizon but to several regions. In other words, different objects in the image had different points of view. Results of analyzing the paintings of New Julfa, showed the various types of deformation due to the dynamics of points of view. The deformations were reflected either in the summarization of various forms in different combination of views. Indeed, the deformation were visually perceived in the different combinations of forms in Armenian Architecture, convexity of heads and bodies of the created figures, as well as the accretion of supplementary planes to the faces, the suspension of objects and their rotation towards the viewer. Therefore, it can be said that despite the stylistic diversity of the studied cases, the dynamics of point of view has played a major role in the formation of visual space in these paintings. Since the of Florensky and Zhegin's theories about the Reverse Perspective was based on the dynamics of point of view, one can say that the artworks of the New Julfa school generally represent of reverse perspective in the construction of space.
Original Article
Mahmood Vatankhah Khaneghah; Mohammad Kazem Hassanvand
Abstract
During the early decades of the 14th S.H century, the Iranian nationalist movement inspired the widespread and diverse use of traditional art themes and motifs in contemporary art. Although Iranian painting had been under a process of modernization since the late Safavid period, during the Qajar period ...
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During the early decades of the 14th S.H century, the Iranian nationalist movement inspired the widespread and diverse use of traditional art themes and motifs in contemporary art. Although Iranian painting had been under a process of modernization since the late Safavid period, during the Qajar period and again after the second Pahlavi reached its peak of the conflict, exchange, and interaction. Among them are Iranian nationalism, Westernism, Return to Self, Identityism, Neo-traditionalism, and etc. Furthermore, the interaction of contemporary modernist painters with traditional Negargari (Persian painting or Miniature) has developed in various ways and under different approaches, each of which is rooted in a deeply rooted social and intellectual logic and subject to a wide range of discourses. As a result, these approaches have a specific relation to contemporary developments and social currents in Iran's history. "Critical approaches" are among the most important of these; They are broadly categorized into two groups: "formalist" and "middle eastern"; and have served as a source of inspiration for artists. The two critical approaches developed during two different periods of contemporary Iranian history. Throughout the 20th and 30th decades of the 14th century S.H., the formalist critical approach emerged more with the Saqqakhaneh movement and lasted until the following decades. As the geopolitical evolutions in West Asia took place in the 70th century (2000 BC), the Middle Eastern critical approach also developed and expanded. Thus, as their name suggests, formalist critical approaches focused primarily on formal aspects of traditional Negargari, whereas middle east approaches focused on society and the identities of the Middle East, highlighting their socio-political aspects. Accordingly, this qualitative research has employed a descriptive-analytical approach and has given special attention to critical theory. The aim of this research is to answer the question, 'What is the formulation of the critical encounter of contemporary Iranian painting with traditional Negargari, and what are the characteristics of works inspired by the critical approach? In this study, using library resources and Internet images, we discuss 12 examples of artworks that are related to both formalist and Middle Eastern approaches, in order to examine how the discourse affecting those artworks is framed. Finally, this study shows that the interaction of contemporary Iranian modern painters with traditional Negargari, beyond Westernism or traditionalism, has been formed through various approaches including critical. Moreover, this critical approach includes both formalists and Middle Eastern groups, and each group's works differ in structural or discoursive characteristics. In addition to all this, these features have been praised or criticized both in Iran and internationally. Because of the ambiguity and inaccuracy of the Iranian art economy today, it can serve currents, experts, and institutions that value contemporary art, especially in the field of Iranian modern contemporary painting.
Original Article
Mohsen Naseri; Zeinab Saadeqi
Abstract
Abstract: It is certain to happen that a historical writing contains numbers of facts about the quality of living status of the writer’s era. Some of them may be mentioned clearly in the text and the others may get concealed beyond the stories narrationed. In this regard, Tarikh-i Bayhaqi, one ...
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Abstract: It is certain to happen that a historical writing contains numbers of facts about the quality of living status of the writer’s era. Some of them may be mentioned clearly in the text and the others may get concealed beyond the stories narrationed. In this regard, Tarikh-i Bayhaqi, one of the most brilliant history books in Farsi, is entitled to be crammed full of those plain and hidden information aforesaid. Thanks to the unique narration approach employed by the author meticulously, in which alongside reporting the main events in an absolutely faithfully way, he described the contexts of themvibrantly and thoroughly in details, including even seemingly insignificant and unimportant incidents. Therefore, his composition is not only a conventional history book, merely confined to the chronicle of rulers and their territories, but a rich resource of precious factual datas belong to the Forth-Fifth/ Tenth-Eleventh centuries. For instance, a wide range of scarce datas about local customs, architecture, clothes and the other humans’ artifact of the epoch, spread amongst the contexts. For this reason, the book Tarikh-i Bayhaqi can be considered a reliable primary source for researches on Irainian historical culture and art issues.But one of the crucial factors that every researcher who aims to explore on this source _and also on the other historical texts_ should ponder, is passing several hundred years from the author’s time until ours. In this long duration, due to several causes such as abolishing the examples and proofs, some of the prose’s words have got changed in the meaning or become completely abandoned and forgotten. Neglecting this vital aspect may lead to misunderstandig or even ignoring some notable facts. So extracting the accurate truths and less misguided datas out of these texts, necessarily needs the original and precise meanings of the words at the exact contexts’ period of time.This essay focuses on the target above for the field of textile and clothing, attempts to scrutinize the literal meanings and examples of the word “Jama” as one of the key main words of the mentioned discipline, throughout the book Tarikh-i Bayhaqi. For this purpose, the method interpreting text by text is employed. At first, the associated evidences covered with anecdotes get pulled out of the text and then relying on their own contexts, and wherever needed juxtaposition with the other historical and literary texts of the same language or epoch, endeavor to comprehend its real sense. In the end, the result of the exploring and comparing clarifies that the word “Jama” despite its mono-meaning in our current days, which refers only to clothes and clothing, amongst the Persian-speakers of the circa Forth-Fifth/ Tenth-Eleventh centuries has had much wider realm of meanings and embodiments and testified to all textile, carpet and clothing
