An Investigation into Metaphorical Function in Human Forms of Persian Painting of Iran(Herat and Second Tabriz School)

Metaphor is one of the expressive methods for understanding unfamiliar concepts or inner layers and a method of cognition. Linguistic studies in the last few decades have defined a new nature for metaphor, according to which metaphor is not just a literary technique or aspect of speech, but an active process in the human cognitive system. Metaphor is defined as understanding one conceptual domain in terms of another conceptual domain. In this view, the metaphorical function of concepts helps unfamiliar concepts and abstract ideas to be understood and touched. Theorists believe that metaphor is a kind of "way of thinking" and so it can be used in other media and areas of expression, including images, cinema, politics, etc. Metaphor can also be used in non-verbal fields, which is specifically called "visual metaphor" in this sense. In recent decades, the argument of visual metaphors has entered the field of cognitive metaphor theory. Converting verbal metaphors into visual metaphors is possible, but complicated. Many verbal metaphors created by words and phrases can be translated into image language. Visual metaphors are much more difficult to be understood and recognized than verbal metaphors. The comparison of the image and the text can define images as  three-dimensional expressions of the world.
Meanwhile, Persian painting is one of the branches of art in which the expressive ability of metaphor is used a lot.  Persian painting is the manifestation of the imaginary world. Discovering and displaying imageries, artists of this type of painting intuit the world of imagination. Since it is neither completely close to nature nor pure abstraction, it has found an intermediate aspect, which has both abstract and imaginary characteristics. On the other hand, not only can artists use the tangible nature, but they can also pass it and gave it an abstract aspect. From this point of view, painters have turned to the language of metaphor to show imaginary images and use facilities that have the capability of associating meanings. The principle of association of meanings, which is particularly evident in metaphor, is of special importance in art, especially in Persian literature. Metaphor in words and accordingly in images is a form that invites the audience from the outside to the inside,  in other words, from something familiar to something strange.  Therefore, through defamiliarization, the artist tries to separate the audience from ordinary and everyday things and introduced another world and truth.
The art of painting is full of visual metaphors in various animal, human, plant, and inanimate forms. Human forms are one of the main and fundamental elements of Iranian painting in terms of visual and spiritual aspects as well as semantic associations. Some of the human figures depicted in paintings are directly relevant to the story or theme, and these humans play a specific role. For example, in the stories of Shahnameh or Khamseh of Nizami, kings, companions, warriors, and special characters mentioned in the story are depicted directly. Nevertheless, sometimes in the same pictures, it seems that the painter has put the body and face of the king of his time instead of the king's face of the story; hence they have created a visual metaphor. In this way, they immortalized their contemporary king by recording it in a work of art. On the other hand, they reveal the qualities of justice, valor, and authority of that legendary king in the existence of the king of their time. However, another type of metaphorical expression through human forms is related to "body states" and their role in associating meanings. In Persian painting, many mental and emotional states and some human behaviors are shown through "various body states". In other words, states and body movements are the source area,  mental and emotional states, and behavioral performance are the target area in visual metaphors. This use of metaphor in the human figure can invite the audience from the exterior of the painting to the interior in the process of reading the text.
The present research seeks to answer the question: What is the expression of visual metaphor in human forms of miniature painting? The purpose of the research is to explain visual metaphors and identify their expressive aspects in human characters used in paintings and also to study how to express metaphorical states and emotions through the human body and face. Since Persian painting is a symbolic and metaphorical art, it can discover the meaning and inner layers, and provide special expressive capabilities to artists to create artworks.
This article has been done on the descriptive-analytical method and by collecting library information and images, the role and position of metaphor, especially conceptual metaphor, and visual metaphor have been studied from the perspective of metaphor in human forms, and present a new analysis of miniature paintings.
By examining Persian paintings, which are full of metaphors, it is clear that this art has a layered and complex expression, and therefore, discovering the inner layers and hidden meanings helps better understanding the works. Persian painters have been able to use visual metaphors in various ways by knowing their capabilities and visual functions of them, so they could express inner and distant intentions. Therefore, in response to the research question, it should be mentioned that one of the painters' methods in the metaphorical representation of human figures is the replacement and visual adaptation of a special character instead of the main character of the story, such as using the character of the king of the time (such as Sultan Hossein Mirza, Shah Tahmasab, Humayun, Shah Abbas, and other Qajar kings) and scholars and elders (including Amir Alishir Nawai, Jami and Amir Kabir) and other people instead of the characters of literary stories, such as Iskandar, Anushirvan, Rostam, etc. in the illustrated version of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh or Khamseh of Nizami. They have tried to document the real events of their time in a metaphorical way, and in this way, they have considered these figures as visual metaphors for fictional characters.
Additionally, through the type of depiction of body movements of human figures, they show some states and human emotions, such as surprise, conversation, shame and modesty, respect, etc., based on the subject and the need of the image. For example, in conversation mode, people are drawn with closed mouths, and usually, the expression of hands, bodies, eyes, and eyebrows are used to display conversation mode. In the state of surprise, the head is depicted slightly bent forward and the surprised person has put his finger on his lips. The other mode is "advice" which is the state perceived by the organ of the body. In this case, the person giving advice is shown leaning forward a little with affection, while the hand gesture and sometimes the palm of hands are stretched towards the opposite person. "Shame and modesty" is also usually one of the states that are understood in painting through body posture. The display of this state is usually shown in a person who is being advised and is holding one hand on the side of the face and usually, the head is shown downward with a high degree of bending. The mode of "respect" is another mode that is used a lot in paintings. Humans who are in front of important figures such as kings, elders, mystics, or lovers, usually show a state of respect combined with modesty. It is also shown in such a way that these people have placed their hands crossed on each other, and at the same time, the head is lowered as a sign of modesty, and the upper half of the body is also bent forward. In other words, in general, these body movements and postures have given a visual effect to show sensual and emotional states metaphorically, and in general, they have guided the viewer from the appearance of the work to its interior.