Analytic Study of the Zendiyeh and Qajar School of Painting

Zend and Qajar’s school of painting, or more accurately termed ‘Court portraiture’, is a painting style that began in the Zandiya period and continued until the Naseri Qajar period. This method was formed by combining the characteristics of traditional Iranian painting with elements and techniques of European painting, which is a legacy of the Persianization period of the Safavid era. At that time, the cultivation of painting art was more dependent on the court, and the kings and princes were the most important clients of art works and the only patrons of art. In the days of Fath Ali Shah, the Shah, by approaching the brilliant past of the land of Iran both before Islam and after Islam, by linking the two to each other, considered himself the heir of the past kings of Iran and its civilization, and with the demigod position he had found, He got permission from the clerics to do something that had never happened before. The painting of the Qajar period can be divided into two general periods: from the beginning to the end of the reign of Naser al-Din Shah, in which the painters of this period chose items of foreign painting that they liked and integrated them into their traditional, combining new and old ways. This led to a distinctly Iranian style of painting. The second period is parallel to the reign of Naser al-Din Shah and after him, during this period, the limitations of court art became more evident and noticeable, and formal and classical painting did not meet the cultural and artistic needs of the time. Qajar’s painting became popular throughout this period of painting on canvas. Paintings have been heavily influenced by Western painting. The popularity of portraiture was particularly high. Lacquer painting was a method of painting that was utilized to decorate pencil cases, mirror frames, makeup boxes, and other decorative objects. A varnish layer is applied to the painting in this manner. Another type of painting of this period is the manufacture of flowers and chickens, which began in the late Safavid period and became popular in the Qajar period.