Rereading Jame’a Mosque of Isfahan’s Patterns in the Safavid Era through the Fundamentals of Visual Arts

Architecture in the Islamic era is like a museum of diverse lines and patterns in religious and non-religious monuments. The present study scrutinizes the patterns used in the Jame'a Mosque of Isfahan due to its historical value and diversity of patterns, especially in the Safavid era, since it is a proper place to re-read the Islamic-Iranian patterns. It seeks to answer how the symmetry in these patterns is compatible with graphic symmetry and what are the potentials of these patterns. The research methodology is descriptive-analytical and data is collected through photography and pattern drawing by the author which is eventually analyzed graphically. In doing so, all patterns used in this mosque, including geometric, arabesque, and Khatai (floral), are studied in the light of the fundamentals of visual arts (spots, lines, surface, symmetry, composition, and size), and the energy governing them. The present article endeavors to demonstrate that Jame’a Mosque of Isfahan’s patterns and motifs can be considered as a foundation for decorative arts in Iran’s contemporary graphics and can create a unified and coherent order in these works. These patterns, which are underpinned by Moslem artists observing the fundamentals of visual arts, have a logical criterion accompanied by their creator’s innovation and mental creativity. It is supposed that using these patterns, which are compatible with the present culture and situation, can exhibit a part of Iran’s culture and civilization and in turn, satisfy a part of today’s graphical demands.