Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Rahpooye Honar-Ha-Ye Tajassomi, cilt.6, sa.3, ss.49-58, 2023 (Hakemli Dergi)
Iranian painting, as an art dependent on Persian literature in terms of themes, narratives and characterization, and context, contains dramatic situations that have been overlooked in academic studies. The analyses of such situations and their structural elements help us better understand the illustrations’ covert narratives and methods of expression. The analyses of such situations and their structural elements help us better understand the covert narratives and methods of expression in the illustrations. This paper utilizes a descriptive-analytical method to analyze two miniature paintings from the Khamsa of Shah Tahmasp, an adaptation of the Persian literature masterpiece Khamsa, written by the Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi. Nizami is one the most significant romantic epic poets in Persian literature whose works have been adapted by many poets, writers, playwrights, and artists. His Khamsa is considered one of the canonical works of literature in the Persian world. Among the five parts of Kahmasa, Layla and Majnun is arguably the most famous one, which tells of a young man, Majnun, who falls in love with a girl, Layla. Despite the mutual feelings they share, they are not able to begin a relationship. By analyzing two paintings based on this story, used in Khamsa of Shah Tahmasp, the study attempts to answer this question: what are the dramatic situations of Layla and Majnun, and how are they reflected in the miniature paintings? Barriers to loving (situation 28th), regret (situation 34th), and losing a loved one (situation 36th). None of the above situations play pivotal roles in the paintings existing in the Khamsa of Shah Tahmasp and are replaced by insanity (situation 16th). The first painting of the Khamsa of Shah Tahmasp is derived from a point in which Majnun is disappointed with reaching the hands of Layla due to the higher status of Ibn Salam. Seeking to produce excuses for – even – short meetings with Layla, he comes across an old woman and asks her to place chains around his head and take him to Layla’s tent. The incident expresses an insane state that has turned into the core of the painting. The painter, making a conscious selection, selects the dramatic state of insanity in the poem and, then, displays it in the painting. Using the element of chains and hands placed on one another, without being closed, the playful dance of three adolescents, the allocation of little pictorial space to Majnun and the old woman, shocked looks, the bird on a dry tree, birds on a blooming tree, and the playing of a flute all instances of his artistic strategies to display such a dramatic state in the Layla and Majnun painting.
The second painting also displays the life of an insanity-stricken person; someone who has preferred the company of animals and beasts to that of humans. Nevertheless, it should be noted that the state of insanity exists in Layla and Majnun, as well. However, unlike such paintings, it plays a peripheral role in the collection. Some artistic strategies adopted by the painter in this painting to display the dramatic state of insanity, other than the painter’s conscious choices, include the selection of pairs of animals, disorderly rocks in a plan, the companionship of the hunter and the prey, and the significant vegetation of the desert. The painters’ approaches in implying the inner feeling of the story and their creative additions to it have enriched the paintings visually; in this way, the painters both narrate Nizami’sLayla and Majnun and, at the same time, have an independent and creative existence that display the implicit aspects of Nizami’s work to the audience. Another strength of the paintings is their focus on the protagonist or the main character of the work. The painters of the Khamsa of Shah Tahmasp have been successful in implementing the capacities of the character Majnun to display the climax of theLayla and Majnun collection. This can turn into a convenient model for artists who create their works by taking adaptations from various branches of literature. The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations theory of the French playwright-theorist Georges Polti has been adopted to discover the pivotal dramatic situations in Nizami’s story and the adapted paintings. The results show that there are three major situations in Nizami’s version: obstacles to love (situation number twenty-eight), remorse (number thirty-four), and loss of loved ones (number thirty-six); none of which has been dominant in the adapted paintings. The miniatures do not replicate the source text but recreate it while remaining deeply engaged with the original material. This approach brings a new aspect to the miniatures and turns them into unique works; they represent Layla and Majnun but stay independent and creative, enabling the audience to witness the hidden parts of Nizami’s work. The miniatures do not replicate the source text but recreate it while remaining deeply engaged with the original material. This approach brings a new aspect to the miniatures and turns them into unique works; In order to obtain the results, the article begins with a summary of Polti’s theory, an introduction to Layla and Majnunn as well as the Khamsa of Shah Tahmasp, and it continues with the analyses of the selected miniature paintings following Polti’s theory.