كليدواژه :
ساساني , پارچه , آيكونولوژي , اروين پانوفسكي , نقش ماكيان
چكيده لاتين :
As the prime exponent of the iconology approach in
image analysis, Erwin Panofsky proposes three s teps for
the approach: the firs t s tep, termed “pre-iconographic
description,”is to gain an overall unders tanding of a given
artwork; in the second s tep, namely iconographic analysis,
the hidden meaning of that piece is inves tigated; and finally
in the third s tep, the iconology itself, the researcher tries
to explore the intrinsic content by means of iconographic
interpretation of a motif. The approach is used in this paper
to discuss the poultry motifs found in Sassanid textiles,
because on the one hand, bird motifs in this context
are a frequent theme which has not been s tudied from that
s tandpoint, and on the other hand, poultry may seem to
have failed to adopt deep, mys tical meanings due to their
lack of evident mythical qualities. Therefore, this research
tries to answer the following: “How are the bird motifs in
Sassanid textiles analyzed and interpreted through Erwin
Panofsky’s iconology?” The hypothesis is that because
these birds lack any unusual, crossover qualities in their
appearance, they have come to represent higher notions
in line with the glory of the Sassanid Empire. Through a
review of exis ting documents and a s tudy of three handpicked
textiles, this analytical, his torical research showed
that the mos t frequently used poultry motifs in Sassanid
textiles are those of roos ters, duck and peacocks. According
to the belief sys tem of Sassanid era, these birds, unlike
their natural and earthly appearance, are congruent in
meaning with promising light, purifying waters, and rebirth,
respectively. In discovering and revealing the innate
content, this type of poultry is frequently grouped with
motifs that indicate “Khvarenah” (Persian: Farrah-e izadi)
divine royal glory and fortune implicitly and the intrinsic
presence of such a symbolic concept amplify their enigma.
Circle, halo, water lily, ring, the sun, pearl, and raised ribbon
are ins tances that emphasize the realization of Khvarenah
for these birds and as a result the owner of the fabric.
Therefore in analytical terms, each bird is associated with
a specific conventional notion, namely the harbinger of
light, clean waters, and rebirth respectively. In terms of interpretation
of symbolic values, one can argue that all three
are close in meaning to the Zoroas trian concept of Khvarenah
and act as a wish for the persis tence and increase of the
Khvarenah for those who already have it. In fact, although
roos ter, duck, and peafowl fauna motifs are defined in the
form of natural birds, they are devoid of mythological aspects
in appearance and are not able to fly to the celes tial
world. However, each of them refer to a greater concept
and are finally consis tent with other cultural motifs with
the theme of realization of Khvarenah and related concepts
such as good fortune and felicity. Therefore, it could be
claimed that the Sassanid artis ts envisaged the richness of
mythological concepts even in imagining material objects
in applied arts such as flightless birds drawn on textiles;
they also used other ritualis tic concepts alongside tangible
ins tances and consciously or unconsciously elucidated
symbolic concepts.
