Quarterly Scientific-Research Goljaam

The arts are born out of the artist’s mind within the milieu of the culture of the period and the social environment. The craft of carpet weaving is no exception, as it is influenced by intellectual and cultural trends. Certain arts such as the art of the carpet have a very long life and have gone through the ages, while they are still alive. Such arts have obviously been influenced by various approaches and beliefs of each period, or have collaborated with various cultures due to the prevailing conditions. Symbolism is an integral part of Oriental art, and Iranian art and the art of the carpet, but at times we come across naturalism also. Therefore, the influence of naturalism on the art of the carpet is worthy of study. In this study using the library research method the hypothesis that “a kind of naturalism has been influential on the art of the carpet” has been tested. This study of the art of the carpet of the Islamic period has analyzed the available texts and pictures of carpet motifs and has confirmed the above hypothesis. The trend of naturalism in the Iranian carpet of the Islamic period has developed through the art of the royal courts since the Safavid period. It continued its development on the basis of Islamic ethics and culture through the Qajar period. However, since the Pahlavi era Western naturalism has influenced the art of the carpet also. In recent years, due to acceptance of Western culture as a result of the open door policies of the second decade since the revolution, as well as the propaganda programs of Western culture targeting Eastern countries, manifestations of Western naturalism in various arts including the carpet has increased.

The designs and motifs of Qashqa’i gelims betray in a sense their weavers’ creative minds, high intelligence, unwavering efforts, great ability, graceful spirit, and deep thought. Understanding the meanings of these motifs and designs will help us become more familiar with the religious beliefs of the Qashqa’i people, the true meaning of their lives, their myths, traditions and rituals. It will also help us recognize the factors that have led to the appearance or disappearance of various motifs throughout the history of the tribe. The general factors that have led to the appearance of motifs in Qashqa’i flatwoven rugs have been mentioned as follows:
A) Geographical factors and the natural environment
B) The history, culture, and art of Iranian nomadic tribes
C) The organization of the tribe
D) The literacy, amount of knowledge, income and status of living of the people The most important conclusions of the study concern the categorization of Qashqa’i gelims, the most prevalent designs, motifs and sizes of the Qashqa’i gelims, designs that have undergone change or have been forgotten and the use of various colors in these rugs.

Symbolism and love of beauty are two fundamental particulars of human kind having special effects on his works of art. Carpet, particularly in Iran, has been one of the grounds of manifestation of symbols and carpet patterns represent symbolic designs. This study is an effort to study this issue, especially in the Safavid and Ghajrid eras which are considered to be the flourishing age of Iranian carpet. Written references as well as 80 pictures of carpets of that period of time constitute the main resources of this study and confirm our hypothesis of great effect of symbolism on Iranian carpet designing. In this study, I have introduced the theoretical grounds of carpet patterns symbolism and for the first time a classification is drawn up which may be used as a starting point for other studies.

Bakhtiari carpet has been less studied and introduced in art studies. Compared with other carpets, its rich designs and forms are overlooked by researchers. In this study an attempt is made to investigate the value and significance of trees in Bakhtiari carpets, with emphasis on variety of its designs and forms.

variety of western carpet designs such as Bahaus School are characterized as different from the traditional designs and forms and are basically based on principles of visual arts. This variety pops up questions about the origin, causes, and relationship with oriental carpets. This paper is an attempt to answer some of these questions. To this end, history of western carpet by looking at art movements such as “William Morris Movement”, “Bauhaus School”, “Art Deco”, “Art Noveau”, and “Post-modern art”.

Tenth and Eleventh (A.H.) centuries are in line with resuming the glory and magnitude of Persian Art. Craftworks (handicrafts) including carpet, attained a great status and dignity comparing the past in the light of this revolution, and find a completely new place for itself. This important issue became a start and turning point in forming original patterns and models and creating new compositions in the design of the carpets and also strengthened the basis of the carpet designing for coming eras. It seems that such phenomenon was due to the novelties and innovations that occurred in the design and pattern of hand-knitted craftworks especially in relation to carpet and caused the prosperity of Safavid carpet. This article tries to investigate the ground and means of such innovation and revolution in the designs and patterns of the carpet of this golden era by providing internal and external indications in this regard.

Design, color and pattern, which are of the carpet overriding esthetic elements, create identity for a carpet. Designers have been depicting the most beautiful and attractive pictures as the carpet design for the past centuries. The history of incorporating computer-based designs into carpets does not exceed three decades; therefore, it is a present-day technology adopted: In the similar vein, it has provided us with a wide range of possibilities. However, due to lack of interest in the widespread use of computer in many carpet-manufacturing procedures, it seems to have been faded into insignificance; therefore, an attempt should be made in order to overcome the challenges between traditional designing atmosphere by hand & that of computer. There are some unanswerable questions as follows: 1) does computer ruin the carpet design genuineness?; 2) is the presence of computer fundamentally necessary in this field?, and 3) will the relationship between an artisan and an apprentice break down when there are countless patterns & designs saved in the computer and there is no need for these manually-designed patterns to be learned & handed down. The method of research adopted here is a case study. In order to recognize each of the above-said methods in designing carpets, it was deemed necessary to study the history of formation of manual designing and the impact of computers in speeding up the production of carpet drawings. In addition, a comparison has been made between computer-aided drawings with that of manual ones. To do this, appropriate data was collected via library resources & interviewing great masters. The research revealed that each one of the manual & computer-aided carpet drawings have special specifications which have been contributed to their similarities & differences. Between them nevertheless, the computer-software stem from manual designing. The distinctive characteristic of computer in speeding up the production is that it is regarded important in both drawing and other fields related to carpet such as approximate calculations, weaving & marketing. It seems that the disinterest of traditional carpet designers in making use of computer has nothing to do with using a computer as a tool; in the other hand, another convincing reason shall be uncovered. It is of paramount importance to describe computer in carpet drawing correctly.

One of the most important factors resulting in outstanding qualities of Persian carpets is their designs. In designing a carpet, the important challenge is to strike a balance between preserving the cultural and artistic values of the design and it’s innovative. Using principles of visual arts, in this paper an attempt has been made to analyze genuine carpet designs and to identify their major features. These principles may guide designers to create new designs as genuine as the past masterpieces. The principles also may be used in evaluating the innovative designs, currently being used in Persian carpets. Applying these principles to some innovative carpet designs reveals that most of the unsuccessful designs suffer from lack of cultural values, and poor designing, composition and positioning. The paper also recommends some what-to-do and not-to-do for those carpet designs that are meant to be innovative.

Persian carpet is a manifestation of all of our national arts. There are thousands of people working in this trade. These carpets are produced by efforts of so many workers and artists. Obviously, it is necessary to gain a good knowledge of precious carpets these days because due to good foreign market for them, unfortunately, these weavings with their exceptional designs have been exported abroad and there is almost no indication of them in Iranian artistic centers. Precious carpets are only presented in exhibitions and carpet shops and so often their artists and weavers fade into obscurity. Only few merchants and a number of particular persons know these people and even there can be no attempt to introduce them to art societies. This paper, beginning with a brief review of the history of Tabriz accompanied with the history of carpet-weaving in this area, introduces some designing and coloring techniques used for precious and high quality carpets of Tabriz and also their designers. Then it proceeds to present some characteristics of these carpets including: weaving method, used materials, colors and son on.

As patterns of other Iranian handicrafts, carpet patterns are valuable and extensively rich sources of visual elements to be used in today’s graphical works whenever appropriate. Due to the fact that these patterns have paved a long way through the history of carpet-weaving, they have been evolved into distilled and beautiful patterns of precise and orderly design structures. It is a cultural necessity that graphics students be acquainted with these patterns and gain knowledge and expertise about them because using these patterns plays an important role in both increasing their visual literacy and creating cultural identity. Obviously, appropriate employment of these patterns requires both suitable knowledge of them and recognition of the right and opportune time of using them which in its turn, demands skill and experience of graphic designers while employing these patterns. In the case of lacking each of aforementioned items by designers, these patterns can not be used appropriately and their aesthetic and cultural aspects will be destroyed.

Books and topics of traditional arts (especially hand-made carpet) have not been compiled based on scientific methods. For years, the literature of carpet design and motif is strangely non-structural and full of deficiencies; even the major writers of the field follow in others’ footsteps. This article tries to prepare the ground for a different viewpoint: a better understanding and classification of “design” and “motif” in Iranian carpets requires solid and reliable bases. Review of those books which have mentioned designs and motifs and have introduced a classification for them reveals that the definitions are heterogenic, references and structures are unknown and there are many sharp and tremendous differences among them, as if there is no cognitive and conceptual objective to be drawn from such classifications. None of such categories can be regarded as scientific, therefore design and motif shall be defined using comprehensive methods but not merely descriptive ones. Ultimately this paper proposes that “design” can be considered as the architecture and overall image of those motifs included in a text, while “motif” can be regarded as the element which portrays the design by means of its capabilities.

In the field of Iranian hand-woven rugs, there are different regions with varied histories some of which are still unknown or neglected. Among these are the Shariat-madar Hur rugs which belong to the ancient region of "Eij" and not long ago, were considered as unique masterpieces of carpet-weaving in Fars province. Definitely, one of the essential investigations in the field of hand-woven rugs is to uncover these cultural treasures from the mysteries of time. The present study aims at introducing this unknown identity with all of its features including designs and concepts hidden in its symbolic ornaments. By using field and library research methods, this paper tries to bring the potentials of the inventive and anonymous weavers of this particular type of rugs to the attention of the researchers and admirers of Iranian rugs. The revealed facts in this study can contribute to an increase in the required information in researching about and planning Iranian carpets. Furthermore, this original study prevents the information regarding this rug from disappearing and contributes to the revival of this type of rug in the region of Eij and Estahban.

The motif of tree is one of the most important and original motifs of decoration and mysticism in human’s art. Different kinds of plants and trees that may be considered as the symbol of “the prayer human” can be found in many historical works in Iran and other parts of the world; each expressing a special meaning and sometimes multiple meanings. “Weeping willow” is one of these motifs that can be found in art works and miniatures of our country, especially in hand-knitted carpets of some areas. Accordingly, the Chaharmahal & Bakhtiaris’ carpets which are classified among tribal and rural categories present such motif especially in carpets with “Kheshti Design”. In this paper the different kinds of such motif have been introduced and their formal and semantic aspects have been studied in Kheshti carpets of different areas of Caharmahal & Bakhtiaris Province.

European tapestries and Persian kilims are the most useful types of flat and non-pile textiles in both regions bearing differences in terms of appearance such as: design, motif and color and texture and also in terms of specific functions which have been assigned to them. This study, therefore, has been conducted with the aim of identifying and comparing these valuable handmade textiles so that it may provide some grounds for improvement and development of Persian kilims while preserving their artistic identity. Although Iranian kilims and European tapestries use similar tools and materials and weaving technologies, but due to certain cultural and spiritual characteristics of Iran and Europe, they are different in terms of designs and patterns, color compositions, sizes as well as functions. Library-based and documentary studies were performed for achieving the aim of the paper and reviewing and comparing these types of Iranian and European handmade textiles revealed many similarities and differences

Various Persian traditional arts can be understood as different aspects of a unique concept. All of them represent substantial meanings which root in both Islamic and Iranian beliefs. The symbolic language of these arts and the ability of being expressed in various arts let artists to choose proper methods for their work. Rug and architecture are the most important Persian arts and two aspects of Persian symbolic design methods. This paper tries to focus on Mihrabi rugs as a direct reflection of one of architectural components of mosque architecture in rug design as a suitable carpet for praying time. The paper intends to show how ancient and Islamic architectural symbols affect symbolic expression of these rugs and how these different arts show a homogeneous idea in terms of their own capacities. This study uses a descriptive method and a comparative semiotic approach from historical and iconographical viewpoint and traces the mosque architecture elements and symbolic plant designs of Mihrabi rugs. Paradigmatic process shows some evidences regarding designers’ efforts to represent triple structure of ancient Mithraism altars in the form of mosque space structures and heaven on the limited space of rugs by replacing a triple division of floral patterns instead of architectural structure of mosques in a symbolic way, so the middle tree represents the ancient tree of life and recalls the main dome and two cypresses with their roots in ground and their heads up to the sky are the symbols of minarets. This fulfills artist’s objective to demonstrate such rugs as mosques and linkage between heaven and earth. 

Regarding the design, pattern and color of Timurid carpets, although no sound and safe one of such period has been survived, there are so many paintings addressing the carpets that most probably have been produced in that time. These paintings are mostly accessible from various manuscripts that have been developed by Timurid princes and patrons. We can even reproduce a whole carpet by analyzing these paintings. One of such manuscripts was created in Harat in the royal library of Baysonghor Mirza under supervising of Ja’far Tabrizi and is dated back to 1429, namely “Shanameh-ye-Baysonghori”. In this paper we are going to analyze six paintings of the manuscript, and to determine the design, pattern, color and even designers of Timurid carpets. This research is descriptive-analytical in nature and its necessity is due to understanding the carpets of the past eras and introducing them to designers and artists of nowadays carpet industry.

During collecting information regarding “kilims” in Chaharmahal-va-Bakhtiari province, it was understood that whatever we recognize under the general term of “Khorjin” can be divided into three categories: small, normal and big ones as described below. (1) Small Khorjins (50×25 cm) which are weaved in both parts of province, i.e. Chaharmahal & also Bakhtiari. They are used for keeping expensive things and objects, documents and also women personal things. (2) Normal Khorjins (100×50 cm) which are weaved for caring foods, things and usual tools which are related to person's job. These Khorjins are produced by Chaharmahalies and Ghashghaies. (3) Big Khorjins (150×100 cm) which are weaved to displace large amount of loads, dresses and light beds. Just Bakhtiari people produce them. Most of these hand-woven items are produced with simple Kilim method, but for weaving some of them, people use pile techniques and some special and important weaving methods special to this province and known as “Rendi” and “Soozani”. From viewpoint of designing, these beautiful products have some designs which are originated from the beliefs and customs of these people or are produced by these tact weavers in the case of being impressed by surrounding environment, or by using geometrical drawings. Apart form ownership issue, safe-keeping and producing something that meet human's needs, the most important thing regarding them is their beautiful coloring schemes and wonderful drawings which delights their viewers.

This paper investigates and analyses geometry in Mihrabi carpet design in Safavid period. These carpets are very important group of Persian carpets in Safavid era. Analysis method is based on the main disciplinary lines in frames. The ultimate objective of this analysis is achieving principal and dynamic points in design composition and suggesting sound geometrical patterns underlying these designs. The conclusion was made that the past designers have turned to geometry as a principal base in carpet designing, and have drawn the designs on the basis of geometry. In designing Mihrabi carpets in Safavid period, just like other arts, special proportions were used in dimensions and some patterns were applied in designs.

“Josheghan-e-Ghali” is located in Isfahan Province near Kashan County, and it has some economic communication with this two cities. Carpet weaving has been common in this area since Safavid era and the products have been exported. In spite of a rich artistic history, this region has been rarely studied. This paper is the first survey about history of carpet weaving in “Josheghan” and the theories about it. The information of carpet weaving in this area will be forgotten, so library research and field method have been used for collecting related data. In Safavid era various carpet designs were weaved in this region but in Qajar era and after that, designs had reduced and some special features had been appeared in the products. It seems that the theory of “Pope” regarding the derivation of contemporary “Josheghan” design from Safavid vase carpet is reasonable. By the way no decisive theory can be expressed in this regard. 

 Investigation and research on contemporary carpets is a vital and original perceptions of "identity" problem and relevant expressions with time and environment is certainly not a easy task. As we deal with some general concepts such as identity, the research literature is often directed to complex and philosophical issues. In the study of cultural encounters and interactions in Ardabil carpets it can be seen that an unbalanced process in social-artistic relations with some style-owned and dynamic cities in the last half century has caused that its simplicity and originality be affected and apparent contradictions can be observed. This paper is a comparative study of 36 samples of carpets from "Aran, Azerbaijan" and "Ardabil" to explore the concept of identity in both traditional and contemporary works, and find the reason for lack of identity via leaving common native identity for reproduced exotic identities.