Visual Manifestation of Covering Crone  In Qajar Paintings of Khosrow and Shirin

Ettehadmohkam, Sahar; Namvarmotlagh, Bahman

doi:10.22103/jis.2023.19620.2345

Visual Manifestation of Covering Crone In Qajar Paintings of Khosrow and Shirin

Document Type : Scientific

Authors

¹ department of visual communication, Faculty of visual arts, Shiraz University of Arts, Shiraz, Fars, Iran

² Associated Professor, Department of French & Latin Language and Literature, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.

10.22103/jis.2023.19620.2345

Abstract

With the promotion of European culture in Qajar era, it caused significant changes in fields of culture and art. One of influential Qajar painting and tile manifestations is scene of Shirin bathe who has been as a symbol of Persian woman but concept of “other”. Qajar image tiles of the scene have been distinguished from images of pre-Qajar artistic schools with the appearance of “covering crone” between king Khosrow and queen Shirin. Therefore the research answers what is the function and cause of the emergence of "curtain and old woman" as covering crone in tiles of Qajar era in the context of a society in transition from traditional culture to modernity and what is the textual myth? Has it been formed? This research aimed to identify the cultural and social factors affecting the visual expression of "covering crone" that has produced specific cultural concepts of Qajar culture and aesthetics. This research employed descriptive-analytical method using analytical method of Gilbert Doran’s myth analysis.
The manifestations of the old woman and the curtain show the traditional and Islamic culture, mediation between the lover and the beloved, hiding the beloved, legitimizing the religious-Islamic meeting of the lover and the beloved, emphasizing non-sanctity, expressing the transition from tradition to modernity. The duality of traditional and Western culture (self and other) dominates Qajar period. And from an aesthetic point of view, the duality of beauty-ugliness, old-youth, and fertility-sterility is manifested in the old woman highlights the two mythical characters of Khosrow and Shirin.

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