Thematic typology of Human Motifs of Safavid Tiles

Thematic Typology of Human Motifs of Safavid TilesStatement of the problem: Tiling is one of the effective methods of decoration and one of the valuable arrays related to architecture. In the Safavid era, with the selection of Isfahan as the capital and due to the need to build various buildings with various functions, the use of tile art reached its peak and artists created beautiful works with plant, animal, geometric, inscription and especially human motifs. While in previous periods, less human motifs were used on the tiles; In the Safavid era, this restriction was clearly lost. Despite the high quantity of human motifs carved on the tiles of this period, comprehensive and independent research has not been done on them. Therefore, in this research, an attempt has been made to answer these questions by examining the tiles with human motifs of the Safavid period: On the tiles of which group of Safavid buildings, Human motifs are mostly used? And what themes do these motifs have and how we could classify them? The main goal of this research is to identify, collect and introduce the tiles with human figures of the Safavid period and classify themes in order to enlighten the studies in the field of art and architecture in the Safavid period. The information of this research was done by identifying and collecting 82 tile frames with human motifs via using library and field research methods and the research method is descriptive-analytical. The results of the research indicate that during the Safavid period, tiles with human figures were mostly used in non-religious buildings such as palaces, mansions and granges, and baths, and rarely only on religious buildings related to Christianity (churches). The themes used can also be classified into 5 groups: hike and excursion, portrait, hunting and escape, religious-Christian and miscellaneous. The highest quantity with 37 tile frames belongs to themes related to hike and the lowest number with 9 tile frames is related to two groups of hunting and escape, and religious-Christian.