Comparing the Pictures of Khavaran Nameh of Golestan Palace with its Reimagining in the Contemporary Period (with emphasis on the 4th visual arts festival 2017)

Along with various heroic epics that were inspired by Ferdowsi’s masterpiece or created independently of it, religious epics deserve attention. Therefore, not enough attention has been paid to them and many of them have remained in the shadows. The main reasons can be found in these points: 1) Many of them have crude texts and were written by religious and pious people, but without familiarity with the literary codes of Persian poetry. 2) Unlike royal and heroic epics, their artists often lacked wealthy and powerful patrons. 3) Dreaming in the religious epic is not very acceptable and desirable and contradicts the official religious history. Therefore, this point can find angry critics in the circle of knowledgeable believers and jurists. Some religious epic works were lucky enough to attract talented artists to decorate them as art. Khavaran Nameh was in this issue and was painted many times, only one of which is kept in the collection of Golestan Palace Museum under number 7075.The depiction of religious subjects in the history of Iranian art has a long history and can be traced back to the first manifestations of civilization in the corners of Iranian civilization. Artists paid attention to the fact that art can be a good vehicle for conveying religious messages and influencing the audience. An image can communicate with its audience beyond the text and establish a connection between the viewer and their characters and feelings. In the visual works of the 4th Youth Visual Arts Festival, which was held for 16 days (November 14-30) in 1387 Shamsi, religious themes related to the literary version of Khavaran Nameh, which is derived from the wisdom of the First Shiite Imam, can be seen. The current research has explored the works of two collections (painting and illustration) and is based on the opinion that between the art of contemporary illustration and the above-mentioned paintings, there is a delicate thread that brings both of them in line with a single line of Iranian painting art (in its comprehensive sense). It should be said that the artists of today and yesterday, although they are different in their styles, ways, beliefs and raw materials from their previous counterparts, but they are still on the same approach and routine and principles can be found that it can be said from their perspective: the door still turns on the same hinge!The purpose of this research is to evaluate the influence of contemporary illustrations from the illustrated version of Khavaran Nameh of Golestan Palace and the style and experiences used in it; The authors try to answer the following questions.1- What elements did the illustrator borrow from Khavaran Nameh paintings and with what techniques did he display them in his work?2- What are the similarities and differences between these works of contemporary visual arts and Shiraz Turkmen style painting with the same subject?Based on this, images in two different artistic spectrums are analyzed in order to present concepts, so that by addressing the characteristics of the images according to the cultural values of both societies, the background and cultural context can be made evident in the works with visual characteristics.This research has a fundamental approach in terms of goal and is descriptive-analytical in nature. The method of collecting documentary information and the tool of collecting information is the note sheet. The authors have purposefully selected eight images with a single theme among the paintings of the Golestan Palace Museum's Khavaran Nameh edition numbered 7075, eight paintings, and from the works of contemporary visual arts taken from the collection of illustrations of the 4th Visual Arts Festival in November 2017, and they are trying to use a comparative approach and qualitative method to analyse the intended works. The current research process is based on three stages of description, interpretation and explanation.In the description stage, the available information about the picture or image is expressed; in such a way that the reader can imagine the work through the text. Information that can answer questions about the subject and guide us to the qualities that tell the meaning of the work. At this stage, it is not possible to prevent the entry of judgment into aesthetic perception, or at least it is not possible to overcome the qualitative analysis that occurs in the first encounter with the work. In the second stage, which is called interpretation, we identify the components of the work, examine the structural, thematic, and content characteristics, and finally, the relationships between the elements. The last part, which is called explanation, is the result of the previous two stages. The dignity and elegance of the work of art in comparison with similar works, the ability and art of the artist in conveying his subject and purpose, or his power in stimulating the mind of the audience is recognized without personal judgment, at this stage. Explanation, as a foundation in the social axis, deals with the contextual reproduction of a text by changing the contextual knowledge.The results show that Khavaran Nameh is the result of an artistic trend among writers and religious artists who thought that the right of speech and art about the Islamic epic had not been fulfilled; and of course, this example is not the only one of its kind. In the paintings of Khavaran Nameh of Golestan Palace, realism exists to a great extent and the obvious difference between Hazrat and others is in his aura. In other cases, his ornate clothes, the meaningful colour of his clothes, avoiding war defense tools (which is a sign of caution), ignoring the spectators and the war situation of the battlefield, submission, humility and seriousness can be seen in most of the pictures.The focus of the artist on the body of the Holy Prophet, in some cases, has caused the artist to neglect other visual elements in terms of artistic principles and even physical laws. Archetypes and indebtedness of text and art to the external environment are seen a lot, and both in the text itself (Ibn Hussam's poems) and in the art itself (Farhad's paintings), it is clear that the goal is to attract the general audience and express its existence and value against non-religious rivals; and of course, from this point of view, their abilities should not be underestimated. If we look at it from this point of view that Khavaran Nameh paintings were in line with the competition and show with the epic paintings of their time, we can count the contemporary depiction of those scenes in the same direction and say that the artists wanted to reach the level of Khavaran Nameh art from another angle. The important point is that the contemporary artists, almost certainly, have considered these pictures themselves or at least similar pictures of these subjects in some other illustrated versions. This point has caused artists to avoid innovation and dreaming to a great extent, and putting in a new design and breaking the ceiling of the sky. However, innovation, multiple techniques and matching elements with contemporary intellectual trends, are abundant in them. This means that the illustrations in question, like the pictures of Khavaran Nameh, are a result of their time. Another change in them is the emphasis on the compassionate face of the Islamic hero, instead of his bold and warlike face, following a trend in the art of iconography, which has started since the Qajar era. The same point can be seen in the adherence of the paintings to the principles of iconography (especially in the form of halos and the silence and stillness of the icon).