The Morphology of Tahmasbi Shahnameh Paintings with Dream Subject, Based on Propp's theory

One of the important subjects in Persian painting is the morphological investigation into pictorial elements and their application in advancement of pictorial narration. The disputed point is whether the pictorial elements used in the Persian painting works only serve some decorative and aesthetic purposes or they also extend the scope of meaning to provide a more complete narration of the story and have the audience enter the details through "association"? The present study has investigated the relevant dream images from among numerous versions of Tahmasbi Shahnameh and 258 images with the aim of providing a proper response to the presented challenges. Thus, the main research question has been formulated as follows: What is the function of the elements making up the images of Tahmasbi Shahnameh in terms of reproduction of dream subject? This research investigates the subject from a standpoint that has not been noted before. Shortage or lack of any research on Persian painting on the subject of "dram" has prompted the writers of the present research to conduct a morphological investigation into the comic strips of Tahmasbi Shahnameh about dream using an analytical-descriptive method. In the present research, using morphology to describe the components of images, investigation into the relationships among the components and the analysis of their function have been done with the aim of explaining the general structures and finding some patterns in function of pictorial elements of dream images. The heroes dream of most of the events in Shahnameh before they take place. This set of the dreams appear in the form of dreams according to the nature and theme before they happen to the character who is central to the story. The type of dream in three images investigated in this research is of predicting type. According to the findings of the research it can be concluded that the function of the pictorial elements can be divided into three categories: 1- All pictorial elements help the morphological structures of works and complement their compositions; 2. Direct narration of story, some function are common among all three images and they can be considered to serve a function in the explicit narration scope of the story. The characters have been depicted while dreaming in all three images that narrate the subject and time of story. Addressing the nature to complement the composition and to express all three images aesthetically can be seen in all three images. 3- Some pictorial elements in all three images perform a symbolic function. The number of these symbolic elements varies, but these elements can be seen in all three images. Sometimes the symbolic function or expression of a sense is distributed among some pictorial elements. These elements create a syntagmatic axis and signify a certain sense like Zahhāk nightmare where the cloud, moon and cypress create a symbolic function. In addition, in the dreaming image of Tous the axis creating the roles of dragon, bull-headed mace, war tools, instrumentalists and visualization of Siavash image along with his magnificent expresses the sense of good tidings.