Violence in Iranian Paintings of Battle Scenes: A Study Based on Slavoj Žižek's Ideas

In the Iranian belief, battle has a long history and fighting has always been one of the most important challenges facing Iranian heroes. This challenge has first been presented with constant struggle between good and evil and then has been represented in different forms in different periods of Iranian art. The contemporary Western thinker, Slavoj Žižek discusses violence in his books and articles and reveals its hidden aspects. By using analytical-comparative method, the present research, first, tries to answer the following question: In Iranian painting, how and with what concepts is violence portrayed? Then, we examine Žižek’s view on violence and compare his view with Iranian paintings. The article compares three examples of Ferdowsi's Shāhnāmeh paintings with the theory of mythical violence and considers the ideas of Žižek and Walter Benjamin. The findings show that the theory of mythical violence can be compared with Iranian paintings and can be used as a way to critique Iranian art.