The Genre of Landscape and Building-Painting (The Artistic) and the Discourse of Nationalism (The Political), during the Late Qajar and Early Pahlavi Periods an Analysis Based on “Mediation” and “Totality” in Methodology of Georg Lukács

Landscape and building-painting as a genre is one of the many features of Iranian painting in the last years of the Qajar and the first years of the Pahlavi era. This paper explains the relation between these painting as the particular, following the domination of the discourse of nationalism as the general. To reason this idea and to explain the relationship between these two, Georg Lukács theoretical method is used to link the “totality” and  mediations”. Hypothesis of the article is based on the texts of two books, Nameh Khosravan by Jalal-o-Din Mirza and Asar-e-Ajam, by Forsat Shirazi, in addition to publication of a large number of “travelogues” of western travelers who visited Iran in Qajar period. These works in terms of their subject as “Recognition and Exploration of Iran” which was based on the compilation of new archaeological documents can be assumed as “mediations” inside a general discourse called nationalism which attracted the attention of painters to the issue of their homeland and its landscapes. The purpose is to clarify the social historical context of the topographical paintings during this period and to illustrate the transition path from nationalism to topographical paintings by utilization of these mediations.