Intertextual and interdiscourse analysis of the Relief of Fath-Ali Shah's battle with a lion in Shahr-e-Rey

Shamsizadeh Maleki, Roohollah; Azhand, Yaghoub

doi:10.22034/ra.2024.1990384.1311

Intertextual and interdiscourse analysis of the Relief of Fath-Ali Shah's battle with a lion in Shahr-e-Rey

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

roohollah shamsizadeh maleki ¹

Yaghoub Azhand ²

¹ Ph.D. student in Art Research, Kish Campus, University of Tehran.

² Professor of Visual Arts Faculty, Fine Arts Campus, University of Tehran.

10.22034/ra.2024.1990384.1311

Abstract

The perpetuating and recurring pagan patterns in Iranian art can be understood more thoroughly by examining the surviving artworks and historical documents from the Qajar era, particularly during the reign of Fath-Ali Shah (1797-1834). This period witnessed a remarkable revival of artistic production. The royal painting atelier thrived, and cultural and literary movements, such as the formation of the literary society called Khaqan, contributed to this flourishing cultural atmosphere.
Fath-Ali Shah’s personal characteristics also played a pivotal role in fostering this artistic and intellectual environment. His poetic disposition, peaceful reign, and deep interest in literature and the arts helped cultivate a climate in which artists, poets, and scholars could prosper. Combined with favorable social and political conditions, these elements gave rise to a significant body of visual art, most notably mural paintings and stone reliefs. These works often featured prominent themes such as royal accession ceremonies and hunting scenes, which glorified the monarch.
Mural painting can be considered the result of the interaction of three disciplines or media: "painting," "sculpture," and "architecture." Stone reliefs (rocks) are a subcategory of mural painting due to their dependence on the context (natural wall: rock and the wall of architectural buildings). On the other hand, one of the prominent trends in sculpting is the process of creating a relief, which is performed with materials and volume processing techniques (reduction and increase). Therefore, reliefs can be considered a type of Intermedia, which is related to painting on one hand and sculpture and even architecture on the other hand.
The reliefs of the Qajar period are directly related to the paintings of this period in terms of subject and pictorial formation. From the Qajar period, eight rock reliefs have been left; most of the works belong to the reign of Fath-Ali Shah Qajar. Three prominent reliefs, "Tengewashi hunting, Firouzkoh 1233 A.H.," "Fath-Ali Shah's battle with a lion (lion hunting) in Shahr-e-Ray city 1246 A.H.," "Fath-Ali Shah's royal procession at Cheshme Ali Shahr-E-Ray 1248 A.H.," were all designed by "Abdullah Khan Naqash Bashi."
These reliefs have more relationship and closeness with each other than the others. The common thread in all three works is that they have, in addition to the visual part, written texts in both prose and verse in the margins or in the body of the works. The relief of "Fath-Ali Shah's battle with a lion (lion hunting), Mount Sorsoreh" was executed at the end of the reign of Fath-Ali Shah on a Sassanid relief on the southern front of Mount Sorsoreh, which was located in the Dejarshkan area of Shahr-e-Ray city.
The information needed for this research has been obtained through the study of documents, reports, artifacts, and photographs that have survived from the Qajar and Pahlavi periods.
Based on the research approach of this study (inter-discourse study), the Qajar relief is first examined in the text description stage, considering its formal and spatial components. Then, in the interpretation and explanation stage, the intertextual relationships will be taken into account to provide the effective contexts in creating the work from the perspective of thematic and media capabilities. Additionally, the hypertexts created based on the work under study will be prepared using discourse analysis and inter-discourse relationship examination. In this study process, the views of "Gerard Genette" in the field of transtextual studies, as well as the views of "Norman Fairclough" and inter-discourse study approaches, have been utilized. This research has been conducted using a descriptive-analytical method and by utilizing library resources and field studies.

Keywords

relief

Fath_Ali Shah

intertextual

interdiscourse

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