Iranian Contemporary Historical Culture (A Semiotic Comparative Study of the Christ and Ashura’s Paintings)

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Assistance professor at ihcs.Tehran,Iran

Abstract
The current research studies diachronic transformations at the two levels of expression and content in the Christ and Ashura paintings from the perspective of semiotics and in a comparative manner. The results of the research show that in Christian paintings of the Jesus, the two levels of expression and content change step by step with every stylistic and paradigm shift from classical to modern and post-modern style. In the five stylistic modes identified, Christ is represented in six ways: Christ as message bearer, king, sympathetic sufferer, insignificant sufferer, ugly, and object of pleasure. Therefore, the representation of Christ shows a process from valuable Christ to worthless and finally anti-value. Christ transforms into the antichrist in the last process of value transformation. As for the Ashurai text in all its three classical, modern and postmodern paradigms, despite the change at the level of expression from narrative to descriptive and then to abstract representation, and despite the change of the audience from general to specific, remains constant in terms of content and represents a single value and meaning (ideology). By transforming the time and place of revenge and good/evil confrontation into an all-time / all-space conflict, modern and postmodern Ashura texts make Fundamentalist Modernism/Postmodernism or Modern/Postmodern Fundamentalism meaningful because they represent the same values that the classical Ashura text introduced.

Keywords


Bahari, Bahareh (1394), "Analytical study of decorative elements in coffee house paintings with emphasis on the works of Hossein Qoller Agassi", The second international research conference in engineering, science and technology, March 2, 2014. United Arab Emirates, Dubai.
Chalipa Kazem; Goudarzi Mostafa; Shirazi Ali Asghar (1390), " REFLECTIONS ON NATIONAL AND RELIGIOUS THEMES IN TEAHOUSE PAINTING", look, Volume 6, Number 18, 69-81.
Ghafourian Masoudzadeh, Mahnoush; Ali Mohammadi Ardakani, Javad (2014), " The accompanying paintings of the coffee house with the folk literature of the Qajar era (the theme and structural study of the paintings belonging to the Astan Quds Razavi Museum with the images of the book of Tofan al -Baka)", Astan-e Honar, No. 10, 8-21, 2014.
Hakim, Azam; Dadvarr, Aboalqhasem (2017), "Comparative Study of Religious Narration of Gothic and Coffee House Paintings", Negreh, No. 47, 95-109
Javani, Asghar; Kazemnejad, Habibullah (2015), "Investigating the characteristics of Shiite iconography in the coffee house paintings of the Qajar era (with an emphasis on the Ashura event)", Shia Studies Quarterly, Year 14, Number 55, Fall, 27-46.
Kahirdeh Nasim | Bahar Mehri (2010), " ANALYSIS OF THE TYPES DISCOURSE AFFECTED BY THE CONTENT OF ASHURA RITES (DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF PUBLICATIONS RELATED TO ASHURA), Youth, Culture and Society, Number 5, Autumn and Winter, 157-174.
Kazemnejadi, Habibollah; Khodayar Dadkhoda; Taheri, Alireza; Hossein Abadi, Zahra (2016), "Epiphany of the Ashura Epic in a Coffeehouse Paintings of Qajar Period", Journal of Iran and Islam Historical Research, Number 19, Autumn and Winter, 171-
Khajeh Ahmad Atari, Alireza; Azarbayejani; Shaery, Hamid Reza; Hekmat, Zainab (2012), "The history of themes, subjects and visual structure of imaginary paintings (Khialinegari) in Iran`s art of Qajar era (According to written documents) ", Islamic Art Studies, Year 14, No. 31, Autumn, 163-134.
Kress, Gunther R (1397), Multimodality: a social semiotic approach to contemporary communication, Translated by Sajjad Kabgani and Rahman Sahragard, Tehran: Marlik. 
Kress, Gunther R; Van Leeuwen, Theo (1398), Reading images: the grammar of visual design, Translated by Sajjad Kebgani. Tehran: New Art. 
Mousavi Khamenei, Zahra (2009), "Top examples in Iranian Painting (Painting  coffee house)", Visual Arts (Fine Arts), No. 39, 65-74.
Nikobakht, Nasser; Khodayar, Ebrahim; Ahmadi Mohsen (2014), "The crystallization of the elements of the coffeehouse in the poetry of the Safavid era", Popular culture and literature, Course 2, No. 4, 109-134.
Qazi Zadeh, Khashayar (2006), "The image of Hazrat-e Abalbazl (pbuh) in the works of the cofeehouse", Negareh, Period 2, number 2-3,
Rajabi Zeinab; Marasi Mohsen (1392), "A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF COMMON CHARACTERISTICS OF SACRED PORTRAITURE IN RELIGIOUS CIVILIZATIONS (BUDDHIST, CHRISTIANITY, ISLAM)", look, Volume 8, Number 26, 18-33.
Rezaeinabard, Amir (2015), "An Introduction to Mahmoud Farshchian's Style and Works (Theoretical and Practical Foundations)", Theoretical foundations of visual arts, No. 2, Autumn and Winter, 66-23.
Sattari, Jalal (1382), "Coffee house painting", Art and people, Sh. 2-3.
Saussure, Ferdinand de (1388), Structuralism post -structuralism and literary studies, by Farzan Sejoudi, Tehran, Surah Mehr, second edition, pp. 48-9.
Shayestefar, Mahnaz (2007), "The presence of the Ashura event in the Qajar painting", Negareh, No. 5, winter, 5-17.
Shayestefar, Mahnaz; Khamseh, Farzaneh (2009), " COMPARATIVE THEMATIC AND TECHNICAL STUDY OF COURT AND COFFEEHOUSE PAINTINGS IN THE QAJAR ERA " Role, Course 2, No. 3, 63-84.
Tagavi, Leila (2014), "From Text to Image: Semiotics of Face and Meaning in Coffee House Painting", The growth of art education, Volume 13, Number 2, 2014. 21-14
Van Leeuwen, Theo (1), Introducing social semiotics, Translated by Mohsen Nobakht, Tehran: Scientific.
Zarei, Karim; Shamlou, Gholamreza; Haghig Manesh, Taghi (2017), "Explaining the influential role of coffee house in the formation of coffee house painting", Archaeological studies of Parse, Volume 2, No. 5F, 143-159.
Zargham, Adham; Dastyari, Elnaz (1397), "Reading two paintings by Karbala's calamity based on Erwin Panovsky's theory of iconology", Demonstration and Visual Arts, 143-156
Volume 15, Issue 56
Summer 2023
Pages 147-184

  • Receive Date 02 September 2023
  • Revise Date 18 November 2023
  • Accept Date 05 December 2023
  • Publish Date 07 December 2023