Volume 17, Issue 66 (2024)
LCQ 2024, 17(66): 1-45 |
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1- PhD student of Art Research, Department of Art Research, Faculty of Arts, Shahed University
2- Assistant Professor, Art Research Department, Faculty of Arts, Shahed University ,marasy@shahed.ac.ir
2- Assistant Professor, Art Research Department, Faculty of Arts, Shahed University ,
Abstract: (2347 Views)
Most Iranian paintings in the Islamic period were used to illustrate manuscripts, and most of the illustrated manuscripts are literary books. Poetry and literature have been in the history of Iranian thought as a system of knowledge and epistemology. Therefore, the issue that is raised is that in Iran, what was the relationship between the history of painting and the history of literature and what effect did the change of literary discourses have on the history of painting? To clarify aspects of this issue, in this article, a section of a period has been discussed in which the literary discourse has changed in the history of literature. In this regard, the illustrations of Jami's Haft Awrang, illustrated in the court of Sultan Ibrahim Mirza, have been analyzed. In this research, Tartu-Moscow School of Cultural Semiotics and concepts of Inter-Semiotic Translation have been used. The results of this article showed that with the change of literary discourse, from the time of Jami to Ibrahim Mirza, Iranian painting has changed in terms of form and content. Haft Awrang, unlike Jami, is not a tool for conveying the concepts of Sufism for Sultan Ibrahim Mirza, but rather a literary and artistic text, and the literary and aesthetic aspects of the work were his priority. These literary and aesthetic aspects are also formed based on the attitudes and concepts of the Voqu School.
1. Introduction
Iranian painting has had a strong relationship with Persian literature due to its use in book illustration. The relationship between Iranian painting and Persian literature is important from two aspects: First, Iranian painting has a direct relationship with literary texts and has tried to translate literature into visual language. Secondly, due to the high costs and the presence of a large number of artists in the preparation of exquisitely illustrated manuscripts, only the court and the centers of power could carry out these projects. Based on this, painters, like poets and writers, were in the service of the royal court and libraries, and this closeness between artists and poets has led to a close relationship between painting and literature. So far, the relationship between Iranian painting and Persian literature has been investigated mostly at the text level. The case studies that have been done on an illustrated version have investigated the relationship between the literary text and the images added to that specific version. The subject of this article is reading the history of Iranian painting about the history of literature, and perhaps in this new perspective, we can search for new horizons in the history of Iranian painting and answer unknown questions. A comprehensive and accurate understanding of the relationship between the history of painting and the history of literature requires a diachronic and comparative study of the equivalence of the history of literature and the history of painting, which is not possible in the form of an article. In this article, to clarify aspects of the claim raised, in a synchronic study, the illustrated manuscript of Jami's Haft Awrang, which was prepared in the court of Sultan Ibrahim Mirza during the Safavid era, will be discussed. In this article, the images of this manuscript have been selected as a case study and analyzed to show the relationship between the history of Iranian painting and the history of Persian literature based on literary developments. Also, the influence of literary discourses on the form and content of Iranian painting has been studied.
2. Data and Method
In this article, to formulate the relationship between Persian literature and Iranian painting, literature as a discourse is considered. Discourse is defined here according to the theory of Michel Foucault, who introduced this concept about the concept of "power/knowledge". Iranian painting is also defined in this article based on the concept of "Inter-Semiotic Translation". Since Inter-Semiotic Translation refers to the translation from one Sign System to another, such as the translation from written signs to images, Iranian painting in the field of text illustration can be studied in the field of Inter-Semiotic Translation. In this article, the selected images are studied based on their relationship with the written text and their translation from the written sign system to the image.
To formulate and explain the relationship and difference between the two discourse spaces or the sign spaces in which the written text and the visual text are created, the theory of "Semiosphere" proposed in the cultural semiotics of the Tartu School has been used. According to this pattern, the discourse space in which the written text of Haft Awrang was produced represents a Semiosphere, and the discourse space in which the pictures are added represents another semiosphere. Jami's text has crossed the border between these two Semiospheres and based on the mechanisms of translation, it has been translated and internalized into the sign system of the new space (the discursive space that governs Ibrahim Mirza's library). With this theoretical approach, painting is not only an objective translation of the written text, but several factors are involved in this translation mechanism, which will lead to the formation of new layers of meaning in the text.
3. Results and Discussion
Abd-Al Rahman Jami, the author of the Haft Awrang Masnavi, had a Sufi attitude, so the poetic form and the narrations he narrated in his work all arose from his beliefs and the origin of Sufism. But Sultan Ibrahim Mirza and the artists of his library had a different attitude towards Jami poems. By adding illustrations to this manuscript, they have expressed their different approach to converting the written sign system of the Jami text into a visual sign system and have used mechanisms in this translation. For Sultan Ibrahim Mirza, Haft Awrang was not a tool to convey the concepts of Sufism, but a literary and artistic text, and the literary and aesthetic aspects of the work were his priority. The reason for this difference in attitude can be seen in the change of literary discourse at the beginning of the Safavid period.
In the first quarter of the 10th century of the Hijri (16th century CE), a new school of Persian poetry emerged, which took the lyric poem out of the dry and soulless format of the previous century. This new school was called "Voqu" and its purpose was to express love situations from reality and what happens between the lover and the beloved. Sultan Ibrahim Mirza was a poet and most of his poems are dedicated to expressing real situations and relationships between lovers. The editors of Ibrahim Mirza's poems in the introduction of the book of his poems that they have published have pointed out his tendency towards the school of Voqu, especially in his lyric poetry. Jami's period was the era of dominance of "imitative discourse" in poetry. However, in the case of Ibrahim Mirza, the literary discourse underwent a transformation and the "Voqu School" became the dominant literary discourse. Therefore, in the new conditions, the attitude of the elite towards literature and attention to the previous poets has also changed.
"Angels Bring Light to Saadi" is one of the paintings in this manuscript that specifically refers to a poet and is the first painting from the Masnavi of Sobha al-Abrar of Haft Awrang. In this story, a "Sufi" has a negative attitude towards a "poet" and it becomes clear to him that a verse from Saadi's poem has brought him a high position that a Sufi may not achieve this position. The same issue shows that literature is higher than Sufism and the position of poets is higher than Sufi. Understanding why, among a text with these characteristics, Ibrahim Mirza and his court artists chose the story related to Saadi for illustration as the first image of this part and translated it into a visual text with the mentioned mechanisms, only through establishing the relationship between the history of Persian literature and the history of Iranian painting is possible.
In another picture, which is about the story of Lily and Majnoon, the place of the text and the margin have been changed, and marginal elements have come to the center, and Majnoon has been marginalized as the main focus of this narrative. The use of this mechanism has led to the creation of the meaning that the whole narrative of Majnoon is represented in the painting as a literary narrative. So, the specific narrative of Jami, in which the Sufi purposes have priority, is marginalized as a macro-narrative. Beloved in Persian Sufi poetry is an expression of the perfect human being or absolute truth. She is a holy goddess and her will is above the lover's will. Such a lover was the high point of the lyrical imaginations of mystics from the Sana'i period to the Jami era for about four centuries. This complete and absolute goddess disappeared from Shah Ismail in the Safavid era. The most common type of Persian poetry during the formation of the Safavid state was the simple romantic lyric. Lyric poems mainly have no theme other than love that is virtual love or real love of the poet for his fellow man.
As another example, "Salaman and Absal" in Haft Awrang narrates a romantic story that contains mystical and moral references along with anecdotes and parables. If Sultan Ibrahim Mirza had an attitude similar to Jami's towards this narrative, he could have chosen characters or scenes for illustration that have mystical connotations. But all these elements have been removed and only the scene of two lovers connecting in a heavenly land is depicted, far from any signs that have a mystical meaning. Therefore, in this painting, by removing mystical symbols, the possibility of understanding the meaning of Jami has been distorted. With this mechanism, based on the concept of "love" which is derived from Voqu School, the story of Salaman and Absal has been translated into a Semiosphere of the Safavid period.
4. Conclusion
The results of this article show that with the change of literary discourse in the Safavid period, painting also changed in terms of form and content. Since Ibrahim Mirza and his court poets were inclined towards the Voqu School, the characteristics and principles of this literary movement have influenced the way of illustrating Haft Awrang. Although Jami had a completely Sufi attitude in Haft Awrang, based on the literary discourse of the 9th century Hijri, the poetic form and the narratives he narrated in his works were tools for expressing his ideas. But Sultan Ibrahim Mirza and his artists had a different attitude from Jami and by adding pictures to this manuscript, they expressed their different approach in transforming the written sign system of Jami text into a visual sign system. For Sultan Ibrahim Mirza, Haft Awrang was not a tool for conveying Sufi concepts, but a literary and artistic text, and the literary and aesthetic aspects of the work were his priority. These literary and aesthetic aspects are also formed based on the attitudes and concepts of the Voqu School, the most important of which is the concept of love. This difference in the attitude towards the concept of love in the era of Jami and Sultan Ibrahim Mirza can be seen in the difference in the representation of love in Haft Awrang text and illustrated manuscript. As a result of paying attention to the real world in the literary discourse, Ibrahim Mirza established similarities between his life and the narrative inside the paintings and used Haft Awrang as a medium to reflect his personal life. By analyzing based on the Semiosphere pattern, it can be concluded that during the time of Sultan Ibrahim Mirza, Haft Awrang was translated into a visual sign system based on the literary discourse of the Voqu School using different mechanisms. The change in literary discourse and its effect on the illustration of manuscripts show that Persian literature had a discourse role in Iranian painting. For a precise understanding of Iranian painting, the history of Iranian painting can be considered a function of the history of Persian literature and studied about the history of literature.
1. Introduction
Iranian painting has had a strong relationship with Persian literature due to its use in book illustration. The relationship between Iranian painting and Persian literature is important from two aspects: First, Iranian painting has a direct relationship with literary texts and has tried to translate literature into visual language. Secondly, due to the high costs and the presence of a large number of artists in the preparation of exquisitely illustrated manuscripts, only the court and the centers of power could carry out these projects. Based on this, painters, like poets and writers, were in the service of the royal court and libraries, and this closeness between artists and poets has led to a close relationship between painting and literature. So far, the relationship between Iranian painting and Persian literature has been investigated mostly at the text level. The case studies that have been done on an illustrated version have investigated the relationship between the literary text and the images added to that specific version. The subject of this article is reading the history of Iranian painting about the history of literature, and perhaps in this new perspective, we can search for new horizons in the history of Iranian painting and answer unknown questions. A comprehensive and accurate understanding of the relationship between the history of painting and the history of literature requires a diachronic and comparative study of the equivalence of the history of literature and the history of painting, which is not possible in the form of an article. In this article, to clarify aspects of the claim raised, in a synchronic study, the illustrated manuscript of Jami's Haft Awrang, which was prepared in the court of Sultan Ibrahim Mirza during the Safavid era, will be discussed. In this article, the images of this manuscript have been selected as a case study and analyzed to show the relationship between the history of Iranian painting and the history of Persian literature based on literary developments. Also, the influence of literary discourses on the form and content of Iranian painting has been studied.
2. Data and Method
In this article, to formulate the relationship between Persian literature and Iranian painting, literature as a discourse is considered. Discourse is defined here according to the theory of Michel Foucault, who introduced this concept about the concept of "power/knowledge". Iranian painting is also defined in this article based on the concept of "Inter-Semiotic Translation". Since Inter-Semiotic Translation refers to the translation from one Sign System to another, such as the translation from written signs to images, Iranian painting in the field of text illustration can be studied in the field of Inter-Semiotic Translation. In this article, the selected images are studied based on their relationship with the written text and their translation from the written sign system to the image.
To formulate and explain the relationship and difference between the two discourse spaces or the sign spaces in which the written text and the visual text are created, the theory of "Semiosphere" proposed in the cultural semiotics of the Tartu School has been used. According to this pattern, the discourse space in which the written text of Haft Awrang was produced represents a Semiosphere, and the discourse space in which the pictures are added represents another semiosphere. Jami's text has crossed the border between these two Semiospheres and based on the mechanisms of translation, it has been translated and internalized into the sign system of the new space (the discursive space that governs Ibrahim Mirza's library). With this theoretical approach, painting is not only an objective translation of the written text, but several factors are involved in this translation mechanism, which will lead to the formation of new layers of meaning in the text.
3. Results and Discussion
Abd-Al Rahman Jami, the author of the Haft Awrang Masnavi, had a Sufi attitude, so the poetic form and the narrations he narrated in his work all arose from his beliefs and the origin of Sufism. But Sultan Ibrahim Mirza and the artists of his library had a different attitude towards Jami poems. By adding illustrations to this manuscript, they have expressed their different approach to converting the written sign system of the Jami text into a visual sign system and have used mechanisms in this translation. For Sultan Ibrahim Mirza, Haft Awrang was not a tool to convey the concepts of Sufism, but a literary and artistic text, and the literary and aesthetic aspects of the work were his priority. The reason for this difference in attitude can be seen in the change of literary discourse at the beginning of the Safavid period.
In the first quarter of the 10th century of the Hijri (16th century CE), a new school of Persian poetry emerged, which took the lyric poem out of the dry and soulless format of the previous century. This new school was called "Voqu" and its purpose was to express love situations from reality and what happens between the lover and the beloved. Sultan Ibrahim Mirza was a poet and most of his poems are dedicated to expressing real situations and relationships between lovers. The editors of Ibrahim Mirza's poems in the introduction of the book of his poems that they have published have pointed out his tendency towards the school of Voqu, especially in his lyric poetry. Jami's period was the era of dominance of "imitative discourse" in poetry. However, in the case of Ibrahim Mirza, the literary discourse underwent a transformation and the "Voqu School" became the dominant literary discourse. Therefore, in the new conditions, the attitude of the elite towards literature and attention to the previous poets has also changed.
"Angels Bring Light to Saadi" is one of the paintings in this manuscript that specifically refers to a poet and is the first painting from the Masnavi of Sobha al-Abrar of Haft Awrang. In this story, a "Sufi" has a negative attitude towards a "poet" and it becomes clear to him that a verse from Saadi's poem has brought him a high position that a Sufi may not achieve this position. The same issue shows that literature is higher than Sufism and the position of poets is higher than Sufi. Understanding why, among a text with these characteristics, Ibrahim Mirza and his court artists chose the story related to Saadi for illustration as the first image of this part and translated it into a visual text with the mentioned mechanisms, only through establishing the relationship between the history of Persian literature and the history of Iranian painting is possible.
In another picture, which is about the story of Lily and Majnoon, the place of the text and the margin have been changed, and marginal elements have come to the center, and Majnoon has been marginalized as the main focus of this narrative. The use of this mechanism has led to the creation of the meaning that the whole narrative of Majnoon is represented in the painting as a literary narrative. So, the specific narrative of Jami, in which the Sufi purposes have priority, is marginalized as a macro-narrative. Beloved in Persian Sufi poetry is an expression of the perfect human being or absolute truth. She is a holy goddess and her will is above the lover's will. Such a lover was the high point of the lyrical imaginations of mystics from the Sana'i period to the Jami era for about four centuries. This complete and absolute goddess disappeared from Shah Ismail in the Safavid era. The most common type of Persian poetry during the formation of the Safavid state was the simple romantic lyric. Lyric poems mainly have no theme other than love that is virtual love or real love of the poet for his fellow man.
As another example, "Salaman and Absal" in Haft Awrang narrates a romantic story that contains mystical and moral references along with anecdotes and parables. If Sultan Ibrahim Mirza had an attitude similar to Jami's towards this narrative, he could have chosen characters or scenes for illustration that have mystical connotations. But all these elements have been removed and only the scene of two lovers connecting in a heavenly land is depicted, far from any signs that have a mystical meaning. Therefore, in this painting, by removing mystical symbols, the possibility of understanding the meaning of Jami has been distorted. With this mechanism, based on the concept of "love" which is derived from Voqu School, the story of Salaman and Absal has been translated into a Semiosphere of the Safavid period.
4. Conclusion
The results of this article show that with the change of literary discourse in the Safavid period, painting also changed in terms of form and content. Since Ibrahim Mirza and his court poets were inclined towards the Voqu School, the characteristics and principles of this literary movement have influenced the way of illustrating Haft Awrang. Although Jami had a completely Sufi attitude in Haft Awrang, based on the literary discourse of the 9th century Hijri, the poetic form and the narratives he narrated in his works were tools for expressing his ideas. But Sultan Ibrahim Mirza and his artists had a different attitude from Jami and by adding pictures to this manuscript, they expressed their different approach in transforming the written sign system of Jami text into a visual sign system. For Sultan Ibrahim Mirza, Haft Awrang was not a tool for conveying Sufi concepts, but a literary and artistic text, and the literary and aesthetic aspects of the work were his priority. These literary and aesthetic aspects are also formed based on the attitudes and concepts of the Voqu School, the most important of which is the concept of love. This difference in the attitude towards the concept of love in the era of Jami and Sultan Ibrahim Mirza can be seen in the difference in the representation of love in Haft Awrang text and illustrated manuscript. As a result of paying attention to the real world in the literary discourse, Ibrahim Mirza established similarities between his life and the narrative inside the paintings and used Haft Awrang as a medium to reflect his personal life. By analyzing based on the Semiosphere pattern, it can be concluded that during the time of Sultan Ibrahim Mirza, Haft Awrang was translated into a visual sign system based on the literary discourse of the Voqu School using different mechanisms. The change in literary discourse and its effect on the illustration of manuscripts show that Persian literature had a discourse role in Iranian painting. For a precise understanding of Iranian painting, the history of Iranian painting can be considered a function of the history of Persian literature and studied about the history of literature.
Keywords: Iranian painting, Jami's Haft Awrang, relationship of painting and literature, The Voqu School, literary discourse
Article Type: Original Research |
Subject:
Stylistics
Received: 2024/05/13 | Accepted: 2024/09/8 | Published: 2024/08/31
Received: 2024/05/13 | Accepted: 2024/09/8 | Published: 2024/08/31
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