mehdi qadernezhad

The region of Sogdiana is recognized as a vital historical and cultural center within the ancient Iranian geographical landscape. This area has garnered the interest of scholars from diverse archaeological viewpoints. The relationship between the religious-narrative culture of Sogdiana and its artistic traditions is particularly noteworthy. Central to this discourse is the narrative of Siavash and mourning for him, which is one of the key religious-ritual stories, showcasing remnants of various ancient mourning practices. Beyond the realm of religious and literary sources, aspects of our historical visual tradition also reflect this narrative, enabling an analysis of the semantic and religious origins of this ritual through these artistic depictions. This article examines the Panjkent wall painting associated with Siavash’s mourning, aiming to analyze this ritual as a significant historical and cultural representation. To achieve this, the study employs Irwin Panofsky’s iconological approach, which proves beneficial in the fields of archaeology, art history, and visual studies. This methodology facilitates the “description,” “analysis,” and “interpretation” of the wall painting, allowing for a comparative exploration with other visual artifacts that contribute to a fresh understanding of the mourning concept. The objective of the present research is to address the central inquiry: “How has the concept of mourning manifested and persisted throughout the history and culture of the Iranian people?” This inquiry aims to explore the historical and cultural significance of mourning while tracing the evolution of this concept through associated imagery. By concentrating on the meanings and historical roots of mourning as depicted in visual representations, this study facilitates an examination of the motifs and gestures of various figures, thereby enabling a broader analysis. The research adopts a descriptive-analytical approach, aligned with its fundamental aims, and employs a methodological framework that incorporates both visual and textual sources obtained through library research and archaeological findings.

The main subject of this article is the form of the mihrab in Iranian-Islamic architecture and the symbolic meaning hidden behind it. Mihrab is an ancient form in architecture, and by studying its constituent elements such as arch and dome, one can find out how it was formed and its hidden meanings. The main question of this article is: "What is the symbolic meaning of mihrab in Iranian-Islamic architectural spaces?". To get a clear answer to this question, both aspects of the form of the altar should be studied. This research seeks to build a framework for understanding this problem using Erwin Panofsky's iconography method.This article is from the point of view of development goal and in terms of analytical-case nature. The data of this research have been collected by documentary method. Based on the results of this research, the altar form is an old form in Iranian-Islamic architecture. In terms of formal structure and meaning, the form of the altar depends on the main elements that make it up, such as the form of the arch and the dome. The influence of arch-domed forms, which is the creator of a religious-ritual form similar to the mihrab or the mihrab itself, can also be seen in other civilizations. The form of an arch in the shape of an Iranian four-arch shows the continuity of an old pattern in the construction of the altar form, which has both a religious and functional aspect and a symbolic-sacred aspect.

Warburg is one of the most inspiring figures in the German tradition of art historiography. Although one of the well-known aspects of Warburg’s intellectual work is its relation to iconology, this article seeks to go beyond the conventional understanding of Warburg to mapping a picture of his “special” view of the image as a whole. To this end, by re-reading the classic Warburg texts and new interpretations of those texts, an attempt has been made to examine the place of his approach to the “image” in the tradition of German art historiography and the key concepts of his intellectual system in this field. The findings of the article show that in this system of thought, we can see the traces of the ideas of thinkers such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Jakob Burckhardt and Robert Vischer. In this context, Nietzsche’s “Apollonian-Dionysian” dichotomy, Fisher’s concept of “empathy” and Hegelian Burckhardt’s totalitarianism were influential in formulating Warburg’s particular conception of the Renaissance art. In this regard, Warburg devotes himself to the study of a concept called the “afterlife” of antiquity and other concepts such as pathos formula, dialectic, and empathy in Renaissance art and thought. It seems that most of these concepts revolve around the idea of “survival.” According to Warburg, since art has a history, images also had remnants, remnants that reveal themselves in connection with the concept of memory and in connection with a concept called pathos-formula. In this sense, Warburg focuses on gestures and their transmission through art. The result of such an effort is a silent language design free from argument. Expressive gesture analysis offers an unusual way of looking at past shapes and allows the audience to find images of the past in the present. This is the meaning of the afterlife and the survival of the images.

The problem of Autonomy of art in Adorno’s aesthetic is one of the most valuable and impressive subjects in contemporary aesthetic. On the one hand, Adorno uses “monad” metaphor (in Leibnizian meaning) for describing autonomous art work, and, on the other hand, he introduces art work as an absolute commodity. This study wants to answer this question: according to Adorno’s idea, how autonomous art works are to be realized under the condions where commodified relation are dominated? Understanding this subject is dependent on conceiving the theoretical basis of Adorno’s philosophy and especially his negative dialectic theory. In the first part of this study I would try to prove the necessity of Adorno’s dialecticalhistorical defense of autonomy of art with a short explanation of his non- identical thinking approach and negative dialectic theory, as a basis of his philosophy. In the second part, while explaining the aspect of political economy in the theory of negative dialectic and by elucidating the dominant commodified logic in art, I would try to clarify that the art work reveals the absolute commodity to be an aspect of autonomy.

Sharafnameh is the oldest detailed history which has been written about the Kurds. The author “Amir Sharaf Khan Bidlisi” was grown up and upbringed in Safavid’s court from childhood and had the title of prince (emir) from Safavid’s kings based on his ethnic, tribal, and family position. Among various manuscript of this history, the manuscript kept in Budelian library as only illustrated manuscript is the most important copy. This copy of Sharafnameh has been ignored from the point of view of Iranian paintings researchers and is not informed about it in studies of them.
The aim of this article is to introduce this manuscript and to study its paintings. In this article we intiteled this copy as “Budelian’s Sharafnameh”. This research has been done with work analysis approach, by studing the paintings itself and of course by using of other related resources. This lecture want to reply to tow questions: firstly to find the patron and the painter or painters of this manuscript and then these paintings shown the influnece of which school? This present study release that firstly the painter of this manuscript is or the writer of the Sharafnameh that is Sharaf Khan or someone else that has worked under patronage of him and in his library. Also the characteristics of this copy shown that the painter and the paintings has influced from the Iranian painting especialy from Safavid’s school.