THE IMAGES OF ANGELS IN IRANIAN ART A Civilization Interaction in a Comparative Study

Abstract

This essay surveys the images of angels in the Iranian paintings particularly in 18th (under Safavid dynasty) and 19th (under Qajar dynasty) centuries in Iran. As a background, the concept of Angel has been briefly studied in four categories of Persian mythology, Iranian epic, Islamic culture and folk stories. The images of angels altered in different periods which were directly related to cultural interaction between "East" and "West". The angels in Safavid period were ideal images in a utopian atmosphere and their pictorial appearances were representations of philosophical and metaphorical concepts. Illustrating the angels for the Safavid artists was actually a way to penetrate into the concepts world. It is essential to mention that the challenge of "East" and "West" which had begun in Safavid period, reached to its critical summit in Qajar era. It was due to various reasons; Travelling abroad, getting acquaintance with modern ideas, constitutionalism movement, entering new technology such as photography and printing industry were some of the most influential causes which affected all aspects of Qajar society. Idealistic vision of Safavid painters changed into naturalistic one and the imaginary illustrations of angels altered to more realistic images. Many progressive newspapers began to be published in which the angels were represented as the symbols of freedom, homeland and constitutionalism. By studying about 50 dominant illustrations, this paper seeks to examine the conjunction between the images of angels and the most important civilization interaction in Qajar period in Iran

Keywords

• Iranian art, Islamic culture, angels images, civilization interaction

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