J. Humanities (2006) Vol. 13 (3): (63 - 81)
Persian Carpet as a Media of Communication between Iranian and European Artists A Semiotic Approach to William Morris’ Tapestries
Bahar Mousavi Hejazi1, Mojtaba Ansari2, Habibollah Ayatollahi3, Mohammad Reza Pourjafar4
Abstract Persian carpet weaving is one of Iran’s most famous industries that has attracted the world’s attention to Persian arts through the centuries. What above all, have given prominence to Persian carpet as a beautiful work of art are the pattern and its composition in a two- dimensional space. The diversity of patterns, use of deep and beautiful colors, good composition, harmony of colors, delicate and poetic composition are among the most outstanding features of Persian carpet. Industrial advancement and development of transportation in the 19th century led the western explorers to travel eastward making them acquainted with the cultural heritage of these civilizations. William Morris, the leading
Downloaded from eijh.modares.ac.ir at 12:59 IRST on Friday October 1st 2021 thinker and artist of the British Arts and Crafts Movement is among the first to conduct a research on Persian carpet’s patterns and designs. In this paper, we are proposing a semiotic approach to the transaction between Persian artists who made beautiful and ever-lasting carpet designs and William Morris as a pioneer of Pre-Modern Movements in Europe, who studied and recognized the underlying principles of Persian art (mostly carpet), and applied them in a creative way to his own remarkable hand-made designs.
Keywords: Persian Carpet, Media of Communication, Iranian and European Artists, Semiotic Approach, William Morris, Tapestries.
1. Research Scholar, Faculty of Arts, Tarbiat Modares University 2. Associate Professor, Tarbiat Modares University 3. Associate Professor of Shahed University 4. Associate Professor of Tarbiat Modares University
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Introduction the fifteenth century on , spoke of them, often in Nineteenth century marks the onset of the expansion terms of abundant admiration . Moreover, they of industry and technology in all fields of human life. were the most imp osing of the trophies that The holding of Crystal Palace exhibition in 1851 travelers could easily bring back with them, and turned Britain into a global cradle and center for the their beauty and magnificence were instantly development of technology. The design of the works recognized as wholly eclipsing the meager floor showcased in this exhibition sparked a lot of aesthetic coverings produced in the west” (Pope, 1938 : p concerns among British intellectuals and artists 2257 ). regardless of technical novelty and technological Art h istorians divide carpet weav ing in Iran creativity. Commercial transact ions and the tour of into three ages: youth age coinciding with the eastern countries by archaeologists and explorers 15 th century; golden age ranging from 16 th to 17 th familiarized Europeans with the diverse aspects of life centuries ; and decadence covering 18 th and 19 th in these countries so that it created an appeal to gaining centuries . Carpet weaving which was common a deeper knowledge of eastern civilization among among Iranian nomads and middle class families European artists and scholars. In the present paper, it as well as in commercial factories began to has been attempted to first gain an insight into Persian attract the court’s attention since the 15 th carpet s and then to elaborate on the way William century , that is, since significant royal factories Morris was inspired by the patterns of Persian carpet s, were set up for wea ving nice and delicate with a semiotic approach to his works. carpets. In those factories , the best and most expensive carpets were woven for t he palaces Persian Carpet as a Medi a of Communication and some of them were given to foreign kings .
Downloaded from eijh.modares.ac.ir at 12:59 IRST on Friday October 1st 2021 Persian carpet is one of Iran’s most famous and What characterize Persian carpets as an artistic popular industries that has attracted the world’s and splendid work are its patterns and attention to Persian arts through the centuries. compositions in a two -dimensional space as well Persian carpet made its way to European, as the material and the weaving technique. especially British museums and personal “World supremacy can be accorded to an art co llections as a result of industrial and only when it is the natural and authentic technological advances and the development of expression of the culture that produced it, and global transportation, thus familiarizing that Persian carpets are to an exceptional degree, European artists with the east ern art. “For for they incorporate in something like perfection several centuries Persian art has been best an aesthetic vision that is profoundly, known in the west by the carpets. They w ere a di stinctively Iranian. In their themes , they rest conspicuous feature of court life and hence securely upon ancient tradition, perpetuating immediately impressed themselves on foreign ideals long enshrined in the language, the envoys and visitors, practically all of whom from literature, and the most solemn spiritual heritage
64 Mousavi Hejazi B., Ansari M., Ayatollahi H., Pourjafar M.A.
of the race. They are executed with a technical made their way to European and American skill , which from ea rly medieval times had been churches, museums, personal collections and the conscious aim of the Persian craftsmen, and archeological markets. offer unlimited scope for the Persian genius for Persian carpets can be pigeonholed into pure design, its satisfaction in multiple rhythmic , several groups based on cities, design s, pattern s, and lucid pattern, freithed with deep implication and weaving technique s. Historians and carpet and rich with allusion . Howev er complex the experts divide patterns and designs into the composition or subtle the poetic appeal, it is following: animal and floral carpet , medal lion guided by an unfailing intellectual clarity which (toranj) carpet , animal carpet, vase carpet, flower is characteristic of the Persian spirit. The carpet , Polish carpet , flower and garden carpet , greatest examples never fall into the obvious but Herat i flower carpet (Shah A bbasi), prayer conceal within themselves infinite riches that carpet , tree and compartment carpet . Finest and yi eld their loveliness only to sympathetic and most beautiful carpets were woven in Isfahan, patient regard, realizing in substantial form the Kerman, Kashan, Qom, Gharah Bagh, Tabriz, most opulent and excited visions of the Tehran, He rat, Shushtar and Yazd. The diversity illuminators, instructed and disciplined by the of pattern s and design s, beauty of colors, use of austere art of calligraphy. At once abundant and deep an d effective colors, composition and orderly, the age –old but ever renewed designs harmony of colors, avoiding gaudy and showy glow with colors learned in the art of faience, colors, delicate, mild and poetic composition, textiles, miniatures, and perhaps mural painting . and eschewing the invocation of numerous and Thus the carpets of the classical period fulfill the immediate effects are among the most
Downloaded from eijh.modares.ac.ir at 12:59 IRST on Friday October 1st 2021 demands of the Persian sense of beauty with a outstanding features of Persian carpet. “There is completeness and justice that no othe r art except a wide range of qualities assigned to carpets architecture can show” (Ibid, p 2259 ). which presum ably highlight their essential The king’s e ncouragement and support , the character – their luxury and magnificence, customer’s taste, the weaver’s art that sought monumentality, stately elegance, enticing perfection, full development of dying technique, rhythms, their sobriety, their exuberance, their and the collaboration of illumination masters tonic austerity, the harmoniou s balance of varied who had talent , dext erity and good taste helped and intense color, satisfaction in the adroit carpet weaving reach its pinnacle in the 10 th resolution of conflicting movements or the century. It was the carpets of the very era that discovery of a firmly rationalized scheme made their way to western collection through controlling a forceful geometric complex.” archeologists and collectors. According to t he (Op.cit, p 3168 ) The garden in its infinite American Iranologist, Arthur Upham Pope manifestations is the theme of most Persian (1881 - 1969 ), more than three thousand carpets carpets. Sometimes they are abstract, like the
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Ardabil and Anhalt and the so -called Isfahans; balance, and although there is no pictorial occasionally they are quite pictorial, recalling element to call to aid adventitious sentiment, the miniatures and the border al page none the less pure and abstract form are illuminations . deployed with such mastery that a powerful One of the masterpieces and the wor ld’s most and valid e motion is expressed with impressive carpets is the Anhalt medallion carpet commanding force. This is abstract art at its that is in Metropolitan Museum ( Fig ure 1) and is finest and most real ” (Pope , 1945 , pp 208 - considered a perfect example of medallion 209 ). carpets of the first half of the 16 th century. It The medallion carpets were woven in looks like that the carpet is part of the tre asure northern and northwestern parts of Iran , left by Turks at the time of Vienna siege (1683 ). particularly Tabriz and Kashan and they reached The carpet was taken to the palace of the Duke to their z enith in the 16th . The designs and of Anhalt in the city of Dessau to be discovered patterns of these carpets consist of a medallion in the middle of the past century. The flower and in the center having different forms with gems plant design of the carpet resembles Shah and at times there are different forms on both Tahmasb era’s illumina tion and it may be sides of the medallion and sometimes a dish or a assigned to the second half of the 16 th C entury. vase can be seen . In every co rner of the carpet, The carpet includes several khataei and islimi there are also a quarter medallion (lachak (arabesque) patterns ( Fig ure 2) and cloud forms toranj) . Such decorations are common in Persian (abrak) all over the field, and also stylized arts, especially on books and the illuminated part images of four pairs , of peacocks have been of the calligraphic books. This is the main proof
Downloaded from eijh.modares.ac.ir at 12:59 IRST on Friday October 1st 2021 wor ked in the bright colors of the khataei of the love of Muslim artists for balance an d patterns. Anhalt carpets beautiful border is observance of symmetry in design. The designs similarly dynamic and leaf palmettes islimi and patterns of these carpets were adorned with reminds one of the 16th century Persian enameled flowers and bushes (gol -ô-boteh) and cornered pottery. stems and cloud form s, and were laced with red, “The field under proper illumination is green, light and dark blue, brown, yellow and bright golden yellow, the bo rder and central white colors. The ca rpets had in general a medallion deep scarlet. The patterns are in narrow interior border inserted in a big exterior cerulean blue, black, and white. The scale is border . It is highly probable that most of these majestic, the colors brilliant and harmonious, carpets were utilized in mosques they have no the patterns animated and graceful - the whole animal and human images. However, not all has an air of jubilation and splendor. For these carpets had such feature rather some although th ese are precisely formal med allion carpets had stylized animal and compositions, with each element in exquisite human images.
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Fig ure 1 The medallion carpet (Anhalt Carpet) , Safavid era (the second half of the 16 th c entury), Metropolitan Museum , New York
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Fig ure 2 The Islimi pattern (so -called Arabesque pattern) The An halt Carpet , the second half of 16 th century, Metropolitan Museum , New York
This is the Ardabil carpet s that has attracted the were probably woven in different workshops attention of European art connoisseur s and artists . supplied with the same pattern of a central sunburst Downloaded from eijh.modares.ac.ir at 12:59 IRST on Friday October 1st 2021 “The most famous carpets to survive from the [toran j] surrounded by sixteen pendants [lachaki] , sixteenth century are a pair o f enormous carpets, a with a mosque lamp hanging at either end ( Fig ure well -preserved one in London ( Fig ure 3) and a 4). The corners are filled with one-quarter of the patched one in Los Angeles, known as the Ardebil centr al design. All these elements float over a deep Carpet. It is said that they came from the shrine in blue ground strewn with arabesques [islimi]. Both that city where Shakh Safi , the founder of the carpets are inscribed in a box with a couplet by the Safavid line, is buried. Both carpets h ave the same poet Hafiz:
design knotted in ten colors of wool on silk warps ‘I have no refuge in the world other than thy threshold
and wefts, but they differ in the number and texture My head has no resting -place other th an this gate ’ of their knots . The London carpet has some 25 followed by the signature of the court servant, million knots, and the Los Angeles, when intact, Maqsud of Kashan , and the date 1539-40.” would have had over 34 million. The two carp ets (Bloom, p 367-368) .
68 Mousavi Hejazi B., Ansari M., Ayatollahi H., Pourjafar M.A. Downloaded from eijh.modares.ac.ir at 12:59 IRST on Friday October 1st 2021
Fig ure 3 Ardabil Carpet , Tabriz , the second half of 16 th century, Victoria & Albert Museum , London
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Fig ure 4 The central to ranj (medallion) surrounded by sixteen lachaki (pendants), Ardabil Carpet, Tabriz, the second Downloaded from eijh.modares.ac.ir at 12:59 IRST on Friday October 1st 2021 half of 16 th century, Victoria & Albert Museum , London
The plan is true to the oldest conceptions and movement of the whole design to be wholly beliefs for in prehistoric time the sun was successful and the experiment was not repeat ed in associated wi th a mysterious atmosphere pool Persian carpets. from which the sun drew the beneficent rain, the Pope mentioned Ardabil carpet as “deeper and other essential of fertility and here at the heart of quieter than its contemporary carpets and more the ‘sun’ medallion is a little pool of gray -green appropriate to the holy place it was woven to water with lotus blossoms floating on it. The adorn... a quite different kind of design: patterns in pendant mosque lamp, a r eminder of the sacred depth, with conflict and surprise, diff erent levels of destiny of this carpet, is substituted for the multiple design systems, each of which determines conventional bar and pendant, but it is a little too the placement of its attached foliage, blossoms and pictorial and too detached from the texture and tendrils. This complex is quite different from the
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obvious symmetry of the general format, so that order to grasp this highly complex process, we there are surprises, arrangements which are not at have to identify the different spatial scales in a all obvious but have the random irregularity of design: from the very small scales near the knot nature… This is accomplished by a combination of size, through al l the intermediate scales, up to three or more different and apparently similar vine overall size of the piece. A carpet, like any design , systems, each with its own character and function. works on several different levels at once, posing a Each system has its own framework. Furthermo re, well -defined problem in hierarchical ordering. The each system has its own implied rate of motion and small scale is defined by contrasts, directional its own implied weight and energy, but all move in forces, and alternation. The large scale requires concord, as with designer’s pre -established relationships, harmony, and balance, and depends harmony; contributing, blending, colliding, but not on matching similar patterns and shapes to tie the extinguished by the other related systems. The whole together.” (Salingaros, 1998: p 2) We will same principle of the separation of components is discuss this subject more in detail in the semiotic found in other arts, especially music… But the approach. apparently irregular placement of these components of the design is really not at all at The Influence of Persian Art on William random. They are strictly and rationally controlled Morris’ Tapestries by the secondary or terti ary vine system, in itself Victorian Age in England was concurrent with not immediately noticed since it is suppressed by industrial advances, economic boom, and being of finer threaded vines and less color development of tra de in European countries that contrast with the ground. It is to this secondary expedite commercial and cultural t ies between
Downloaded from eijh.modares.ac.ir at 12:59 IRST on Friday October 1st 2021 system and not to the first or dominant level of nations. It was during that era that western patterning that the blossoms are at tached. It archeologists, orientologists, and explorers traveled supplies a rational control different from the to the east and became acquainted with the cultural distribution that would be expected from the heritage and historical greatness of these primary system. It is the denial of expectation that civilizations and sought to take the achievements gives the feeling of surprise and a new principle of of those nations home. It was also during then that an objective independent arrangement” (Op.cit, p European artists fascinated by the beauty and 3170). time lessness of Persian designs. Nikos A. Salingaros suggest ed that old carpets William Morris (1834-96), British Art s and have ‘life’: “the greatest carpets project a very Craft s Movement ( 1850-1914) theoretician is a powerful presence… By codifying the principles pioneering thinker and artist who conducted underlying the design of carpets, it may eventually research on Persia n art . The study of materials and be possible to compute the ‘life’ of a carpet as a the process of manual product ion, and research on mathematical coefficient from the design … In existing clues in patterns and designs of Persian
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carpets, textile s and ceramics are among the Morris is an artist who well knows how to embed significant activities of Morris’ and his fellow his artistic, literary and political ideas and causes in thinkers in the Arts and Crafts Movement, which is numerous works, and that is why he infuses his artistic known as the most important and influent ial of spirit in his works by using his creativity. His Europe’s 20th century Pre -Modern Art Movements. imagination causes artistic soul and thought to flow in A study of the fascinating life of William the realm of time, enabling us to recognize his art in Morris and his numerous and diverse works that time span between past and present and within a indicates the multi -dimensional character of a gap between tradit ion and modernity. “Morris’ scholar and artist who has not only play ed a key extraordinary understanding of his own time, and of role in the growth of art in Britain but has left a that time as eternal, may explain his enduring presence deep impression on the artistic developments in today - some one hundred and fifty years after his birth. Europe and the world. Morris’ thoughts on the role A time traveler, William Morris was a Renaissance of the artist and craftsman in fact serve as a bridge artist in a V ictorian age: inspired by the range of that in a sensitive period of time interlinks the past Leonardo, he wrote poetry and prose; designed, and the future of European artistic movements. painted, and decorated; spoke in public as a socialist Thus, he is regarded as “a pioneer of Modern A rt activist and thinker; and manufactured patterns of in Europe” ( Diag .1) (Pevsner, 1936 ). flower , leaf , stem , and pod” (Raven , 1985 : p 8).
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Diag . 1 Pr e-Modern Movement in Europe (1850 -1940 )
72 Mousavi Hejazi B., Ansari M., Ayatollahi H., Pourjafar M.A.
Spending his childhood in poetic atmosphere in I had no idea that such wonders could be d one in the midst of the nature, Morris used flowers and carpets’… By 1882 he was declaring ‘ to us plants as themes for his designs, creating decorative pattern -designers, Persia has become a holy land, works with the use of some sort of a homogenous, for there in process of time our art was perfected’. harmonious and u niform composition laced with The beauty of color, coherence of pattern and repetition, growth and alteration. These works were respect for surface shown by these designs created in line with their applications. “ Epping provided Morris with essential examples from Forest, Morris’ childhood refuge, is a source for his which he could create his own very individual many versions of Eden and her particulars, arranged works in a spirit of emulation rather than imitation in configurations o f interwoven flowers, fruits, and using ‘principles that underlie all architectural foliage, and creatures… Although Morris can be seen art’ ” (Swettman , 1988: p178). some way as an ecologist, a pacifist, and a conservationist, his plea was personal. He did not want to lose the annular refuge of peaceful contemplation he had nurtured and c ultivated in all his work and life” (Ibid, p 9). Therefore, Morris loved Mother Nature as the epitome of God’s creation, as she is one of the most significant sources of inspiration for creating works of art ( Fig ure 5). He sought to create symmetrical and beautiful designs that have some type of uniformity and
Downloaded from eijh.modares.ac.ir at 12:59 IRST on Friday October 1st 2021 congruence for all their complication and complex designs, and incur peace and tranquility in the viewer ( Fig ure 6). “Rest is also harmony, in the musical sense, as rhythmic silence… Morris’ need for homely respite was so great that his singular quest in all his endeavors was the creation of heaven on earth, a healing Eden.” (Ibid) So this is the fact, which explains his admiration for Persian Carpets. “We have Morris’ positive and repeated testimony, however, of his response to Persian carpets… On 13 April 1877 Morris wrote to Thomas Wardle: ‘I saw yesterday a piece of ancient Persian, time of Shah’ Abbas (our Fig ure 5 Tapestry, ‘ Woodpecker ’, 1885 Elizabeth’s time) that fairly threw me on my back:
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standard whereby one may test the excellence of the palmy days of Persian design’ ”(Ibid) . Therefore, Morris’ carpets designs show love for Persian carpet weaving art and his attentive care in using animal and plant designs. In spite of the complexity and number of themes, the carpet’s design remains a two - dimensional, non -outstanding decorative object so that the sense of underlying surf ace is always present . This is mainly due to the use of balance, symmetry and repetition together with growth, complementary and equivalent colors and generally a proportionality and orde r in the work as a whole. Thus, the complexity of patterns is in fact a result of the plurality of orders which have created harmony and coherence through the coupling of balanced opposites all over the levels of multiple systems of designs . Downloaded from eijh.modares.ac.ir at 12:59 IRST on Friday October 1st 2021 Fig ure 6 Runner, ‘ Hammersmith ’, 1880
One of his most beautiful works is a hand -woven carpet that was made of wool with cotton warp in 1889 . The carpet is now kept at Victoria & Albert Museum in London (Fig ure 7). “While his own designs were very perso nal, however, Morris could throw his considerable energies into spreading awareness of genuine old Persian examples, and stimulating demand in the west for classical Persian patterns and the standards of weaving that should go with them… To Morris , the Ard abil Carpet was ‘of a singular perfection… logically and consistently Fig ure 7 Carpet , ‘Bullerswood’ , 1889 , Victoria & beautiful, and, as it was dated, it represented’ a Albert Museum, London
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A Semio tic Approach to the Art of William research is conducted on the possibility that an Morris image consists of units that are meaning, not According to Ferdinand de Saussure (1857 - sign. Hence, “pictorial semiotics may be 1913 ), semiotics (or semiology as he called it) is described as that part of the science of to study ‘the life of signs in society’ , while John signification which is particularly concerned to Lock (1632 -1704 ) and Charles Sanders Pierce understand the nature and specify of such (1839 -1914 ) believe that semiotic is originally meanings (or vehicles of meanings) which are the ‘doctrine of signs ’. The word ‘semiotic’ colloquially identified by the term ‘picture’ ” (sémiotique) originally derives from the Greek (Ibid, p1). word σηµετωτική meaning ‘the concept of A semiotic theory which coul d be proposed to signs’, which means σηµαιώω ‘indicative of, be applied in the field of visual art is ‘the theory expressive of, and equivalent to’. However, of communication’ (Diag . 2). Deriving from the Pierce later u sed ‘mediation ’ as a description of communication schema of Roman Jacobson the subject matter of semiotics . And “Saussure (1896 -1982 ), the semiologist from the School of not only argued that in the semiotics sciences, Prague, the theory regards the ‘artist ’ as the there is no object to be studied except for the ‘se nder ’ of ‘the message ’ and the ‘viewer ’ as the point of view that we adopt on other objects” ‘receiver’ . The message that is of the visual type (Sonesson, 1992 : P 12), but also believes that a is conveyed by the ‘medium ’, which is a ‘work sign is a relatively ostensible ph enomen on of art ’. If we consider communication ‘the resulting from the interaction between values. process of conveying the message by the sender
Downloaded from eijh.modares.ac.ir at 12:59 IRST on Friday October 1st 2021 Grimace has rejected the idea of ‘sign’ and his to the receiver, provi ded that it incurs the followers have put forth the same idea in sender’s intended meaning in the receiver’, ‘the ‘pictorial semiotics’ . Similarly, Umberto Eco visual language’ and ‘the environment’ in which (born in 1932 ) has also used (1976 ) the term information will be of great importance. By ‘sign process ’ in place of the relative term environment we mean all the social, cultural and ‘sign’. intellectual as well as emotional factors, which Given these ideas, it however does not seem can influence the process of transaction between that the word ‘sign’ limits the field of semiotics a ‘sender’ (here the Persian artist) and the to o much, but the field of semiotics is the very ‘receiver’ (here Morris) and influence the realm of signification and ‘ semantic s’ . So, ‘interpretation’ of the message. whether such image (that certainly conveys meaning ) being considered as a sign? If s o, then
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Code 1 Contexte Code 2
SENDER MESSAGE RECEIVER
Coding Decoding Medium
Diag . 2 The communication schema of Roman an Ja cobson
The interpretation of a visual message (Diag . 3) The iconic level is the interference of the could be achieved by articulating two semiotics beholder in the plastic level to organize the levels: ‘plastic level’ and ‘iconic level’. Plastic nomination of figurations and representations in level (Diag . 4) could be explored in two phases : the picture: in this way, the viewer can recogniz e ‘pre -syntactic’ and ‘syntactic’ analysis. The pla stic the objects; those there visions have been level shows the rules of composition such as memorized before. These objects could belong to symmetry, balance, rhythm, proportion and the the ‘real world’ or to the ‘visual encyclopedia’ of relation between figure and ground, which the beholder; so the visual knowledge of the organize the visual variables such as plastic viewer will be of great importance in the process (color/tonality, texture) and perceptual variables of interpretatio n of a visual message conveyed by (form/limit, dimensio n, orientation, implantation in any artistic medium (see Saouter , 2000). Downloaded from eijh.modares.ac.ir at 12:59 IRST on Friday October 1st 2021 the plan) (see Saint -Martin , 1990).
Pictorial Semiotics
Communication Theory
Visual Perception
Plastic Iconic Level Level
Diag. 3 Pictorial Semiotics
76 Mousavi Hejazi B., Ansari M., Ayatollahi H., Pourjafar M.A.
Plastic Level
Organisation of Visual perception
Syntactic Pre -Syntactic Analysis Analysis
Diag. 4 The Plastic Level
The ‘Ballerswood’ carpet is analyzed in two (Arabesque perspective) are shown in Figure 9. semiotics level s: plastic level which shows the In the iconic level, the Persian motif s such as composition of visual components, symmetry lotus palmette, leaf palmette, rosette, lanceolate and balance ( Fig ure 8). Levels of multiple design leaf and stylized birds can be identified by systems which depict several Islimi patterns ‘trained’ eyes. Downloaded from eijh.modares.ac.ir at 12:59 IRST on Friday October 1st 2021
Fig ure 8 The plastic level ( Symmetry and proportion)
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Fig ure 9 The plastic level ( Level of multiple design systems)
A semi otic study of Morris’ works and designs Persian design and painting as well as the techniques (Diag . 5) sheds light on the fact that he has not just of weaving and natural dying. Familial, social and copied Persian works, but he has achieved artistic historical environment, educational and intellectual creation after a prolonged and systematic study of characteristics, talent of influencing people and underlying components and also separate and friends, and natural environment are among factors
Downloaded from eijh.modares.ac.ir at 12:59 IRST on Friday October 1st 2021 fuseable levels of patterning as well as the Persian that caused Persian arts, particularly Persian carpe ts motifs which will be found in all the great carpets of to leave a significant impression on aesthetic the 16 th century mostly in the great Ardabil Carpet. thoughts of Morris as one of the pre -founders of So he became familiar with the aesthetic principles of Modern art in Europe.
Visual Language
Persian Artist Ardabil Carpet William Morris
Environment
Diag. 5 The process of transaction of visual information between the artist and the viewer
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Fig ure 10 The iconic level (Lotus palmette, leaf palmette, rosette, lanceolate leaf)
Conclusion artistic collections of the world ) are express ing Persian carpet is among those artistic works that, the aesthetic mastery and deep -rooted principles while introducing the Iranian skill and mastery, of composition and harmony in Persian art by is considered as one of the most outstanding the Iranian craftsman . universal artisti c achievements of Iran over ages. Persian composition that is based on balance, Persian carpet weaving hit its pinnacle during rhythm, use of bright colors, equilibrium of form the 16th and 17th centuries , so that the and ground, as skilled use of multi -la yered order, masterpieces left from th is time (which most of all bringing about complexity beside beauty, is them are kept in the famous museums and indicative of the creation of plurality in unity and
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vice versa , a principle which has its root in the [3] Pope, A. U. ( 1938-9), A Survey of Persian Art , monotheistic nature of Iranians during the ancient 6 vols. Oxford : Oxford University Press. times and after conversion to the holy Is lamic [4] Pope, A. U. ( 1945), Masterpieces of Persian re li gion. Art , New York: The Dryden Press. Publisher. William Morris is an artist who was born in one of [5] Raven, Arlene, William Morris : Gift wraps by the most decisive and turbulent e ra of European Artists , New York: Joost . art , in a country that is seen as the center of [6] Saint -Martin , F. ( 1990 ), La Théorie de la Industrial Revolution in the world. At this decisive Gestalt et l’Art Visuel , Montréal : Presses de time when European art was assaulted by the l’Université du Québec. ‘mechanization’ and ‘industr ialization’ and that [7] Salingaros, N.A. ( 1998), The « Life » of a artists faced a dilemma as to choose between ‘the Carpet: an Application of the Alexander Rules, honesty of craftsmanship’ and ‘the beauty of man - paper presented at the 8th International made objects’ or ‘the dominance of ugly mass Conference on Oriental Carpets (ICOC) in produced objects’, Morris and his f ollowers sought Philadelphia , November 1996. Appears as a to reco ncile art and industry ; so they returned to chapter in Oriental Carpet and Textile Studies the East and selected eastern and mostly Persian art V, edited by M. Eiland, Jr. and R. Pinner, principles to attain this goal . Thus, a semiotic Conference on Oriental Carpets, Danville , CA. approach which could scrutinize the underlying [8] Saouter , CH . ( 2000), Le Langage Visuel , aesthetic principles of both Persian and Morris’ art Montréal : XYZ. can show that these principle s influenced the visual [9] Sonesson, G., Pictorial Semi otics, Gestalt language of the European Pre -Modern Art in early Theory, and the Ecology of Perception, http:// th
Downloaded from eijh.modares.ac.ir at 12:59 IRST on Friday October 1st 2021 20 century. www. arthist .lu .se /kultsem /pdf/RVAGestaltv 2. PDF (accessed 25 April , 2005). References [10] Sweetman , J. ( 1988), The Oriental Obsession: [1] Bloom, J . & Blair, S H. ( 1997), Islamic Arts , Islamic Inspiration in British and American Art London: Phaidon. and Architecture 1900-1920, Great Britain: [2] Pevsner, N . ( 1960), Pioneers of Modern Cambridge University Press. Designs from William Morr is to Walter Gropius, Harmondsworth and Middlesex: Penguin Book Ltd .
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