Quarterly Scientific-Research Goljaam

The hunting & animal patterns is indeed one of the most important & effective motifs which can be seen in Persian Art since ancient times. For a long period of time, these motifs (which include religious & old mythological concepts, and tell about the geographical & natural human being environment, as well as his own desires, his domineeringness, and struggle for survival), have been designed & accomplished in various subjects and to their perfections by man of those ages in different arts. The importance of the hunting & animal motifs has caused these particular motifs to be repeated at any age. Meanwhile these repeated patterns have kept their own concepts & specifications regarding the variety of animals and compositions and at the same time have been rendered in innovative styles. This paper is trying to deal with one of the hunting & animals patterns in Persian Art namely: “Catch & Take” pattern. It also introduces some samples from the ancient ages till Safavid era, and finally the manifestation of these patterns from viewpoint of verity of animals & compositions have been studied in some carpets of Safavid era.

Hunting is a familiar phenomenon for human being, and appearance of “Hunting Motif” on the carpets in Iran, according to the remaining documents, can be dated back to the Safavid era,i.e. the Golden Age of Iranian Carpet. In this period, carpet-weaving elevated to the degree of excellent royal art, and carpet became a luxury, decorative and even commercial commodity. The nature and origin of the “Hunting Motif” can be mainly attributed to two main, and of course different, facts: reflection of lyrical royal image within royal hunting grounds and saber-rattling of the kings on the carpet, and expression of mythical and mystic meaning of hunting. Moreover, according to this research, mystic and symbolic concepts can be considered as the main reason of appearance this motif in Safavid carpets.That is because motifs of carpet have always reflected the safe “Garden of Heaven” for Iranian People, thus how can one find a reason for presence of the hunting motif, which reminds the violence, on the carpets? This paper provides an analysis and proposes a solution. Findings show that although there is a meaningful connection between saber-rattling and hunting motif in carpets, however, regarding the intent of the designer for presenting an image beyond the ordinary and terrestrial image, and modulation of hunting motif with symbolic elements such as angles, Simurgh (phoenix), lion and some animals with small wings and emphasis on the Gereft-o Gir motif and hunting of cow by lion, it can certainly be said that this motif speaks louder than a common royal entertainment, although with some exceptions. From a different perspective, this research can be regarded as a research of symbolism and semiotics of carpet design using non-decorative elements, which can play an important role for perception of the spiritual concept of carpet, and consequently, contemporary carpets will be understood as more spiritual works. This paper has analyzed eight samples of Safavid carpets (containing hunting motif) using analytical and descriptive method through desk study

 

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