Comparative Study of Visual structure, “bringing the head of Iraj to Fereydoun "in the Safavi schools"

Basic features of Iranian painting in the centuries after the establishment of Islam are in relations with Persian literature. Painting depicts various literary themes by showing persons and scenes of stories, it also depicts the poetchr('39')s or writerchr('39')s words in drawing and color. Persian literature paintings, and especially Ferdowsichr('39')s Shahnameh stories are one of the most important epic themes in the history of Iranian art. Iranian painting, like Persian poetry and literature, has its own special traditions and rules, so that the painter considers the rules, features, and special traditions of his own period painting in his literary portrayal rather than in the text. In Safavi era, artists in various workshops of Tabriz, Qazvin, Shiraz and Isfahan have created different versions of the stories of Shahnameh. One of the Shahnameh stories, which has been dramatized by the painters repeatedly during this period, is the story of "bringing the head of Iraj to Fereydun". Fereydun is one of the most prominent mythical figures of Iran. According to Shahnameh, he is the son of Abtin, one of the descendants of Jamshid who, with the help of Kaveh Ahangar, overcame the tyrant Zahak and imprison him on Damavand Mount. Then he becomes the king of the world and in the Shahnameh, Ferdowsi he is considered as pre-emptive king. Fereydun, the son of Abtin, and the captor of Zahak. At the end of life Abtin divides his kingdom among his three sons And since Iran, which is a better and bigger part, is given to Iraj, who is the smallest boy, and his two brothers, Salm and Tur, envied Iraj and killed him. Then the head of Iraj sent to Fereydun. This study, entitled "Comparative Study of Visual structure, “bringing the head of Iraj to Fereydoun "in the Safavi schools" was aimed to study visual themes and elements and also to compose graphic images with the common theme "Bringing the head of Iraj to Fereydun" Safavi depicted in workshops in Tabriz, Shiraz, Qazvin and Isfahan. Questions of this study are: 1) Which representative of Safavid period schools created images of bringing the head of Iraj to Fereydoon and performed their visual elements and visual elements? 2) What similarities and differences can be studied on visual structure of these images? Analyzing the features of the visual structure of these paintings, in addition to deep understanding of the graphs and the possibility of comparing the features of different courses we can obtain reliable information on the characteristics of these courses and allows them to be influenced by each other. Also by studying of 34 images and taking into account their date and specifications of the figures, 11 of them were related to the Safavi schools. Due to the fact that all the paintings were not available, the statistical bunch was limited to 7 pictures of different schools of the Safavi period. The graphs are described in terms of period of time to the elements of the paintings(content and subject) in real, symbolic and figurative terms, and from the perspective of visual arrangements, including visual elements (line, color, texture) and composition (golden spiral, square index , Golden rectangle and guide lines) and then analyzed. This research is based on descriptive-analytical method and comparative approach by using library studies and observing works to identify aspects of differences and similarities between graphs. The findings show that although different schools of Safavi have different characteristics, they are influenced by visual structure and each workshop is influenced by the availability of previous versions of them. In the above-mentioned graphs, due to the common theme, a single image has been used, but according to visual imagery and features of the workshop it has different structure. It seems to be a Safavi school image. This leads to a lower image communication with the Shahnameh original text, used for visualization of Shahnameh stories, instead of referencing the original text as the model.