Mehdi Loni, Parviz Eghbali, Farideh Davoudimoghadam,
Volume 15, Issue 58 (Summer 2022)
Abstract
One of the key motifs in Shahnameh is the struggle between evil and good. Motifs serve a unique and essential role in the text’s visual and narrative networks because of their distinctive repeating feature and characterization. As a result, they assist in enhancing the text’s semantic layers. In Shahnameh and epic literature, the struggle between evil and good permeates human social interactions and appears as motifs in heroic and epic stories. Motifs are used by the painter to create visuals throughout the text visualization process, and visual elements are placed in the composition in line with the motifs employed in the literary text and take on the function of symbols and signs. This study examined the roles that literary motifs play in the visualization of an epic narrative and in shaping the visual narrative. The main research question was: What functions do the literary motifs from Rostam’s Seventh Labor play in rendering paintings and transforming the text of Shahnameh into a visual text, and what techniques does the painter employ to visualize such motifs. A descriptive-analytical methodology was used in this qualitative study. A desk study was used to collect the data. The results showed that the motifs of the text are represented in the visual symbols and signs of the paintings. Paintings can be composed and planned utilizing these aspects in accordance with the priority of motifs employed in the literary narrative thanks to this visual translation from the literary text.
Extended Abstract
Recurring and salient in pictorial and narrative networks of the text, motifs have a prominent and fundamental role in literature. They foreground the literary text, adding layers of meaning. Good versus evil is a major motif in Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh where the struggle eventually surfaces in humans and social life, manifested in the form of heroic stories and epics. The battle of Rostam and Div-e Sepid (the White Demon) is one of Shahnameh’s stories illustrated frequently in the miniatures of different periods, spotlighting the importance of its illustration. The general theme of the “Haftkhān” (known in English as the “Seven Labours of Rostam”) is the hero (good) saving Iran and the king from the demon (evil) and ultimately, his victory over evil after undertaking seven difficult tasks. The major motifs in the literary text used in this narrative network include real human characters (hero or good or Rostam), real-bestial characters (Rakhsh), mythical-legendary elements (evil force or Div-e Sepid), events encompassing the main actions in the story (slaying Div-e Sepid, overcoming evil, and dropping the blood of the demon’s liver in Kay Kavus’s eyes to restore his sight), symbolic objects (the blood of the demon’s liver), natural elements (black cave), unusual incidents (the seven labours). In the process of illustration, the miniaturist uses motifs to produce the images. Therefore, pictorial elements become symbols when they are placed in the composition according to the motifs. The contribution of literary motifs to shape the pictorial narrative in the illustration of an epic was a central discussion in this article. This study attempted to answer the following main questions: What is the role of literary motifs of the “Haftkhān” in the illustrated miniatures of the story and the process of turning the text of Shahnameh into pictorial text? What techniques have miniaturists used to manifest these motifs in the illustrations?
Bound and free motifs, which form the narrative network of the text, were extracted and compared with the illustrated versions of the stories in miniatures. The purpose of this study was analysing the place of the literary motifs of the “Seven Labours of Rostam” in the formation of illustrated miniatures of this story. In this qualitative descriptive-analytical study, the data were collected through documentary and library research.
The results showed that pictorial signs and symbols in the miniatures appear in congruence with the manifestation of the motifs in the text. Such an illustrated translation of the literary text has led miniaturists to utilize motifs used in the plot based on their priority in the composition and framing of their works.
