A Study of Six Qajar-Era Artworks
Abstract
Iranian Coffeehouse Painting makes up a remarkable stage in Persian Painting and consists of various cultural concepts, including anthropology. Iranian women, particularly mythical figures like Gordafarid, Tahmineh, and Roudabeh, occupy a central position in such paintings. The present study aimed to analyze the status of mythical women. Thus, six coffeehouse paintings by distinguished figures in the field were selected and analyzed using a descriptive-analytical methodology and a historical approach. The analysis took into account mythical concepts and artistic faculties like the manner of coloring, figures, and the relationship between the portrayed women and the topics of the paintings. The study aimed to analyze the status of mythical women in coffeehouse paintings and the art of storytelling with pictures (Pardeh Khani). The findings of the study showed that the dominant feature of the investigated artworks was the portrayal of women as the protagonists of the story, illustrated based on the Persian style of painting.
Figure 2. The Battle of Sohrab and Banu Goshasp by Hossein Qollar-Aqasi
The topic of mythical heroines is also a significant one in coffeehouse paintings. As can be seen in Figure 1 by Hossein Qollar-Aqasi, the battle between Sohrab and Banu Goshasp is illustrated. Banu Goshasp, also known as Savar, is one of Rostam’s daughters, Giv’s wife, and Bijan’s mother. In this painting, the artist has tried to simultaneously illustrate Banu Goshasp’s power and beauty against Sohrab. Disregarding the commonplace techniques of perspective that were typically adopted at the time in Iran, the artist tried to offer a complete picture of Banu Goshasp’s personality by illustrating her from lateral and direct positions. On the other hand, the contrast between the coloring of the two opponents’ clothes and their horses is a clear indication of two rival fronts. While Sohrab’s horse is painted red, the one Banu Goshasp rides on is a green one, and their clothes are distinguished from one another by the use of red and green. Moreover, Banu Goshasp’s face is so determined and forward-looking that it takes on a victorious expression against the body and face of Sohrab, who is inclined upward against the lance held out by Banu Goshap and indicates his lack of balance. The troops of both sides who stare at the fight and intensify the sense of heroism attributed to Banu Goshasp make up a significant factor in deepening the concept of championship involved in the scene. Nonetheless, the artist does not ignore the aesthetic elements and characteristics of an Iranian girl in the above painting. Instances include long black strands of hair that protrude out of her cap and a full face with thick black eyebrows, and these are characteristics typically used as symbols of beauty in the paintings created during the Pahlavi Dynasty. Between the head of Sohrab’s horse and Banu Goshasp’s figure, there is a thin strip of silk that is a continuation of Banu Goshasp’s head covering and somehow intensifies the sense of feminine purity and delicateness. However, as expected, the artist ignores the natural course of affairs. In other words, it is expected that the piece of silk should lean backward by the forward movement of the head of the horse, but it is painted in a forward-moving mode to contrast that purity and delicateness with Sohrab’s intransigence. In this painting, Maestro Qollar-Aqasi masterfully illustrates opposing elements, including love, delicateness, beauty, sturdiness, war, and anger.
Figure 2. Leyli and Majnun by Hassan Esmaeilzadeh (Chalipa)
Iranian love stories have made up another interesting topic for Iranian artists of various ages. An instance is the story of Leyli and Majnun, which has been narrated by many literary figures like Nizami Ganjavi and painted by Iranian artists like Hassan Esmaeilzadeh (Chalipa). The most prominent characteristic of the painting concerning Leyli’s personality is her way of sitting in
front of Majnun. The position indicates a conversational mood and avoids an extremely emotional one. It is as if Leyli is involved in a profound dialogue, and this is corroborated by the general silence dominating the atmosphere. Leyli’s way of sitting with her hands on her knees highlights her peace of mind and concentration on the character who is sitting in front of her (i.e., Majnun). On the other hand, the continuation of the quietude dominating the atmosphere and the peaceful mood of the animals illustrated around Majnun emphasize a mystical and tranquil mode. From a visual perspective, Leyli is wearing a one-piece red dress, indicating her inner excitement. This state of inner excitement contrasts her calm and meditative way of sitting and somehow reflects that she has her love and fascination under control. On the other hand, Majnun is sitting humbly and mystically, indicating the effects of Leyli’s words. The depth of the scene between the two characters reflects a mountain and light, indicating the clarity and purity of the relationship between Leyli and Majnun in addition to emphasizing the depth of the concepts illustrated in the scene. Moreover, Majnun’s skinny and languished body and Leyli’s cheerful face and almost stout body produce a conceptual contrast, indicating that love originates from Majnun and Leyli is happy with this. Indeed, unlike Majnun, Leyli does not suffer because of this love, but she is happy with the expression of that feeling. This is love expressed after she disentangles from a forced marriage with a person called Salam. That is because Leyli’s father imagined that she would forget the memory of Majnun if she married someone else. However, this did not come true.
Figure 3. Rostam and Tahmineh by Hassan Esmaeilzadeh (Chalipa)
One of the most significant sections in the Shahnameh is the meeting between Rostam and Tahmineh. Rostam, the protagonist of the story and the most famous character in the Shahnameh gets involved in a romantic feeling only once, and the very feeling results in the birth of his son, Sohrab, who is doomed to be killed by his father.
At first sight, this painting involves a magnificent and heroic atmosphere. It appears that the artist intended to render the grandeur of the characters – i.e., Rostam and Tahmineh – by creating a different and magnificent environment. The portrayal of a table filled with various delicacies in the painting is an indication of a royal reception and the benevolence of the Shah of Samangan. Moreover, Rostam’s manner of sitting at the table reflects his position of power. In addition, Tahmineh is portrayed in a royal outfit. She is holding a candle in her hand and is portrayed from a three-quarter view, and this indicates her inclination to move. Thus, a contrast is created with Rostam’s solemn and immobile manner.
On the other hand, the candle rays light Tahmineh’s face in a way that profound happiness and enthusiasm are evident it. The candlelight and the moonlight get aligned so that a peaceful, romantic, and mystical atmosphere can be produced. Nevertheless, the artist acts against the principles of narrative by giving a somehow personal interpretation of the matter. That is because Rostam’s horse was not found until a day after the meeting between Rostam and Tahmineh took place. However, the horse has a symbolic presence in the painting, with its head jerked toward Tahmineh. Perhaps the artist intended to reflect the role of the horse in forming the relationship between Rostam and Tahmineh. The horse is painted white, standing close to Tahmineh, and this is an indirect indication of the role of nature and, particularly, animals in the stories of the Shahnameh. In this painting, the green color of the clothes worn by Rostam and Tahmineh minimally creates a conceptual unity and emphasizes the quiet atmosphere between Rostam and Tahmineh. Particularly, the trousers of Tahmineh and the underside of Rostam’s clothes are painted green. The use of this color in the underside parts of the figures somehow leads to inducing a sense of calmness and logic in corporeal relationships. As Shahnameh narrates that Tahmineh entered Rostam’s chamber secretly, her unstable posture is a witness to her temporary presence. Tahmineh is the wife of the most significant hero in Iran’s national epic. Not surprisingly, a reasonable person like Rostam follows his logic even in emotional matters and does not rely on appearance-related characteristics like beauty in selecting a wife but takes into account inward factors like reason and logic, as well. Indeed, the Iranian hero attributes traits like beauty and wisdom to Tahmineh, and Ferdowsi argues that wisdom covertly resides in Tahmineh’s spirit. She is a wise and modest girl whom no one has ever seen on the other side of the curtains as modesty, chastity, and being hidden behind curtains are among the desirable features and womanhood criteria in the Shahnameh, and the women who are described as modest ones are praised in every part of the book. Tahmineh’s chastity and wisdom are represented by her clothes, posture, and location, respectively. The princess’s chastity is evident by her cloak, which has long sleeves and a furred collar. Her long cloak not only covers her body but her hands, as well. Moreover, a part of Tahmineh’s face, while she looks down in sheer modesty, is covered. On the other hand, it can be argued that Tahmineh’s wisdom is implied by the characteristics of the spot she occupies. According to the painting, Tahmineh is standing exactly in the inner space of the doorway. To reach such a special and purposeful position, she has passed two other spots, including the framework and the hallway behind. In the painting by Maestro Esmaeilzadeh, Tahmineh is a collection of love, chastity, glory, and wisdom.
Figure 4. Shirin and Farhad by Abbas Boloukifar
In the fascinating story of Khosrow and Shirin by Nizami Ganjavi, the meeting between Shirin and Farhad is the most significant event where Farhad falls in love with Shirin on the day of the meeting. The very first meeting makes him so senseless that he becomes free from any logic and does not understand the meaning of Shirin’s orders. When the meeting ends, he asks his servants about the meaning of her sentences and understands that he has to create a trench of stones, stretching from the grassland to Shirin’s place of residence. Farhad starts carving the mountain with such love and enthusiasm that it takes only a month to create a trench in the heart of granite and build a pool at the end of the path. The painting is, in general, made up of two parts: one on the left and the other on the right. On the left side, Farhad is carving the mountain, while the right side portrays Shirin visiting Farhad accompanied by her maids. Though the painting includes a binary composition with spiritual symmetry, it does not deal with the contrast between good and evil. Rather, it focuses on the confrontation of love and friendship. It is for this very reason that Shirin and her maids are illustrated using delicate and fluid strokes of the brush, with no trace of violence or harshness in them. Moreover, while Farhad is busy carving the mountain, he is looking back at Shirin. The first and foremost characteristic of the women’s visual representation in this work is the alignment of their looks to Farhad in a graceful and mystically profound manner. The women are all displayed in a static mode with inner dynamicity, and this is evident in the way they look. On the other hand, the color composition of Shirin’s clothes made up of turquoise in the upper parts of the body and a red skirt, is successful in rendering a sense of emotion in Shirin and, at the same
time, the dominance of logic in her. Nonetheless, the clothes indicate a kind of upward stretch, ending in her tiara. Moreover, the conceptual relationship between the flower on Shirin’s skirt and the flowers scattered on the ground around Farhad adds to the implied and visual connection between their love. Furthermore, the woman who is standing behind Shirin and is holding an umbrella above her is both an indication of the latter’s high status and the fact that her love for Farhad is supported by the women. This is also confirmed by the continuous presence of the women in the final scene of the painting. In other words, the final scene includes more women who endorse Shirin. Perhaps the painting had a pioneering conceptual structure in Maestro Boloukifar’s era in which the traditional view toward love was still dominant. Moreover, the central space of the painting, highlighted by the use of light and white color, emphasizes the purity of the relationship between Shirin and Farhad. The space in which Shirin’s hand fades and is, indeed, imagined originates from Shirin’s thoughts. In this painting, Abbas Boloukifar acts in the most metaphorical manner possible to both pay tribute to pure love and accurately display human anatomy and internal moods.
Figure 5. Kay Khosrow’s Court by Abbas Boloukifar
Kay Khosrow is among the mythical kings of the Shahnemeh. He is a king whose birth, nurturing, actions, and end seem extra-historical and somehow extraordinary. In the painting, Kay Khosrow is sitting in the top center facing women who are dancing and cavorting. It appears that the figure displays the ceremony in which Kay Khosrow comes to the throne after Kay Kavous, fulfilling a longstanding wish of Iranians. In the figure, nine women are dancing and playing music, and their figures are portrayed with more extensive details and coloring compared to the formal and rigid figures of the men who watch the scene. Particularly, the women’s extraordinary flexibility and the accurate depiction of anatomy have made them especially distinguished. On the right side, there are four female players (playing three types of instruments, including percussion, wind, and string instruments) and a singer, and a perfect symmetry is created between their visual coordination and harmony and the content of the work (i.e., performing music). To put more emphasis on the female singer, her right hand is portrayed on her ear, which is a very commonplace gesture in Iranian classical music. On the other hand, the performers’ concentration on their instruments is evident in their appearance and bodily figures, and this is somehow a way to emphasize their consciousness and virtuosity. The composition of the three dancers’ gestures and the manner of rendering them in the center of the painting indicate the culmination of happiness and joy in the gathering. The women’s posture and their circular movements make them look like flowers. Moreover, they carry a musical instrument in their hands called castanets, which were prevalently used by dancers and some musicians in the past. The significance of the three women’s clothing arises from the fact that two of them (the ones on the left and center) are dressed similarly, while the woman on the right is distinguished from them by her different clothing and, of course, the more skillful twists of her body. Perhaps she is the dancers’ coach and occupies a higher position compared to the other two figures. As a witness to the above claim, she is wearing a long belt with delicate decorations and is standing closer to the players. Concerning the head covering, all performers, dancers, and singers are wearing white scarves in the painting. This is a tradition encountered in the previous paintings and symbolizes purity and liveliness. There is also a woman on the left side of the painting offering delicacies to the guests and handing a pitcher of wine to the soldiers who are all holding their swords in their hands. Indeed, the painting emphasizes the superior power and rigor of the soldiers and the Shah and, at the same time, creates a cheerful atmosphere through the presence of female artists.
Figure 6. A Wedding Ceremony by Abbas Boloukifar
The above painting is particularly important in terms of the number of women and the concentration on them. The painting was created during an era that is characterised by the confrontation between traditional and modern lives in Iran. In this work, Abbas Bolukifar has tried to illustrate a pleasant atmosphere of traditional Iranian-style marriage ceremonies where men and women are separated, and this continues until the very present moment. The painting has unique characteristics in terms of dealing with women. The first characteristic is the role played by women in one of the most significant events of one’s life – i.e., marriage. In the painting, the main scene in the marriage ceremony (the spot where the bride and groom are sitting) is surrounded by women, and men are only depicted on the side of the painting, somehow separated from the main scene. The women present in the image can be divided into two major groups. The first group is made up of the women who are positioned behind the bride and groom and are rejoicing there. The figures have no chadors and are wearing white scarves from which some flowers are dangling. It appears that the scene is intended to reflect maximal happiness, purity, and the continuity of nature. In the painting, many social traditions – e.g., paying tribute to the elderly, women around the bride and groom wearing chadors, and a woman smoking hookah – are illustrated by the presence of women. Smoking hookah was illustrated as a behavioral tradition of the elderly mostly during the Qajar Dynasty and Reza Shah Pahlavi’s reign. The placement of little girls behind the older ones is another example in that regard. On the other hand, older women in the above painting are illustrated in a guiding and directing mode. Indeed, paying tribute to the elderly, which has deep roots in Iranian culture, is skillfully illustrated in the painting. Nonetheless, the most significant and audacious part of the representation of women in the painting concerns the reflection of the images of the bride and groom in the large mirror. In this section, the painter ignores the commonplace principles of composition and perspective and illustrates the faces of the bride and groom in a way that the mirror is toward the audience rather than the subjects of the painting. The artist intends to highlight the significance of the occasion, particularly the bride, by tapping capabilities like the reflection and repetition of images so much so that the bride’s face is repeated on the mirror with more concentration and care and catches the eyes of the audience for a few moments. The representation of that purity and sincerity is highlighted by the Holy Quran in the hands of the bride.
Conclusion
The woman has always occupied a pivotal position in Iranian culture. A criterion for the intellectual and social growth of communities is their way of viewing women, and women have always been regarded highly in Iranian culture. Thus, signs of respecting women’s rights and status can be found even in ancient Iran’s social system. Though the trend has undergone some ebbs and flows over time due to foreign invasions and cultural mixing, the overall spirit of Iranian culture is filled with appreciating and paying tribute to women. Proof of such a claim can be found in Iranian literature and arts are filled with obvious signs of the high status of women in Iranian culture. In general, it can be argued that the presence of mythical women in Pardeh Khani paintings, particularly coffeehouse paintings, in Iran can be investigated from three different perspectives:
1. Women’s physical appearance in the painting,
2, Their spiritual and corporeal characteristics,
3. Their social status and position
Artists creating such works show that women while maintaining their feminine identities, play special roles in protecting and sustaining the permanence of heroes and saving them in strange political and, even, romantic conflicts, as well as matters related to prudence and sagacity, which may be as important as the roles by men in a battlefield. Women’s faces in the works of such artists are illustrated with delicacy, beauty, and decoration and play central roles in the composition of the work, typically complementing men’s characterization.
In such works, though painting women’s faces is carried out completely following the characteristics of a thoroughly Iranian woman, the manner of rendering each figure is different from others. In addition to pursuing a particular topic, each one of the works contains symbols with a particular meaning. The existence of a helmet and armor for a woman whose face includes feminine delicateness makes her similar to heroes and champions and symbolizes bravery, courage, audacity, and, at the same time, dignity, representing women’s broad-mindedness in ancient Iranian society.
Written by Samira Sahranavard
