Architecture in the Paintings of Herat School

Due to its special respect to human being and his living environment, the Herat School has used plethora of architectural elements. Architecture in the Herat School is an element, spread in the space of miniature, in order to arrange the structure and create an appropriate position for the characters of miniature. What is revealed in the present study is the development of architectural elements and their influence on the structure of the artworks which have been investigated using an expression-analytic method. The effect of architectural elements have never been constant throughout the history; starting with a bare facade of a building and improving gradually to an evolutionary state in miniatures of the  School which has been converted to an alive and dynamic space, affecting the entire structure of the composition, as included in this study. The experimental elements of the current study have been selected from the artworks of early and late eras of Timurid miniatures. A particular perspective by the help of the architectural elements along with a frequently changing point of view and simultaneous illustration of several spaces of a building are the main characteristics of Timurid miniatures. Buildings demonstrated in Timurid miniatures include a vast spectrum from religious buildings such as mosques to civil ones like martial constructions and bathhouses, which have been deliberately selected to have the elements of the architectural factors, highlighted in two various time and chronological viewpoints; before the  School and after it.To consider the elements of the Herat School in comparison with the previous approaches is a proper way to realize the importance of the appropriate position for the characters of the miniature. There are some significant aspects in Herat School which have turned it into a more practical school. The factors can be summarized as having special abundance, having proper vision to architectural aspects, having the special details of the architecture, increasing the vision domination, and setting proper frames. Comparing different structures before and after the Herat School reveals that Timurid miniature has drawn special attention over some specific aspects.
The significant religious factors which can be considered in the architectural structures of the mosques are the specific domes and the fantastic miniature of the walls and floors. On the other hand, the spectrum of the non- religious structures could even be probed from miniature viewpoint. In non-religious structures, inspired by external factors, the design of the characters as well as the floor artworks have had a great impact on the colors which had been chosen to have the pattern of these structures and to highlight the dominant role of the architecture in the artworks of the non-religious structures. Consequently, minaturing has had a special position in the artworks of the structures which could be scrutinized after and before the Herat School.