A comparative study of the forms and motifs of the pulpit in Timurid and Safavid painting

 
 
 
In Islamic architecture, the pulpit is connected with the position of the mosque and the altar, and as one of the additional elements in the mosques, it is considered as an example of religious art. The pulpit next to the altar is one of the spiritual, symbolic, practical, and material points in mosques, which has always increased its greatness throughout the history of Islamic art and architecture. Especially in the Islamic era, it has played a significant role as an influential media with two functions of informing and teaching. Based on this, the pulpit is considered one of the most valuable works of Muslims' art throughout history and one of the best examples of the combination of beauty and efficiency in Islamic art, which Muslim architects always tried to decorate it. In this regard, they have carved Quranic verses, prophetic hadiths, the names of sultans, the names of the producers of the pulpit, and the production date on the pulpits and decorated them beautifully with special Islamic methods such as stars and Arabic lines. In between, the skillful decoration of pulpits that has continued in Islamic lands such as Iran is also important, which was based on a random tradition, in a clichéd form. It can be said that the shapes and designs used in the decoration of pulpits are generally geometric shapes (line, angle, square, cube, polygon, cone, spiral, circle, and sphere). From their combination, new designs, grids, and stars are drawn, also, Islamic and herbal motifs are used inside them. In addition to mosques, the presence of pulpits is also seen in other fields such as painting. Persian painting is the most important image source that tells about something in the past. Persian Painting, despite the small number of paintings with pulpit, has been able to draw it as a religious, political, aesthetic, and effective element in space staging. Persian painting, as an image influenced by religious concepts and values, has a main branch in depicting holy and religious subjects. This branch has always been full of personalities, events, elements, and religious symbols and has been responsible for social, political, cultural, and other responsibilities in different periods. Among these, two types of religious depictions can be listed: 1) Depicting religious subjects (images of saints and prophets with religious elements in a religious settings), 2) Depicting non-religious subjects (depicting non-religious people with religious elements and symbols), which is the pulpit element in the first group was visible.
Meanwhile, depictions of the pulpit element are mostly seen in the paintings of the Timurid and Safavid periods, to the extent that in the Timurid period, a significant number of paintings had religious themes and elements such as the pulpit. During the Timurid period, examples of the pulpit are often seen in the paintings related to the schools of Herat and Shiraz. Also, in the Safavid period, with the choice of the Shiite religion as the official religion, religious thoughts took on a new and serious form, and from this point of view, the narration and illustration of books and religious elements were taken into consideration, among which the role of the pulpit is important. In addition, the pulpit and speech are related to politics, and as a result, more attention is paid to portraying it. According to this, we can justify the bold presence of the pulpit element in Safavid paintings, in which painters created an atmosphere different from other spaces by using their objective and mental experiences. It can be seen in most of the paintings related to Qazvin, Mashhad, and Isfahan schools. Therefore, it is possible to reveal the characteristics and formal and visual changes of the pulpit depending on the paintings of these two periods.
The purpose of the present research is to investigate the form of the pulpit in the painting of the Timurid and Safavid periods with an emphasis on geometric motifs to identify the similarities and differences between them. The questions are as follows: What are the formal and visual features of the pulpit in the paintings of the Timurid and Safavid periods, and what are their similarities and differences? This research was carried out with a descriptive-analytical method and a comparative approach, and it is fundamental and practical in terms of its purpose. Information has been collected in two ways: the library and the internet. Sampling was purposeful and the statistical population, due to the limitation of paintings with pulpit role, was determined in the number of twelve images (five images belonging to the Timurid period and seven images from the Safavid period). The data analysis was done qualitatively and with a formalistic approach to show the aesthetic features of the "pulpit". In this regard, the findings of the research have been analyzed by emphasizing the form and geometric motifs using Tatarkiewicz's semantic implications for form. He has proposed five semantic implications for form, which this research has taken into consideration regarding form in visual art; the form in the meaning of the second and third groups, i.e. form "B" and "C". Regarding the analysis based on form "B", attention was paid to the representative and figurative forms of pulpits and their components, height and appearance were mentioned. Also, the emphasis is on abstract forms, that is, motifs that are examined in the form of contour lines and colors. In connection with the "C" form, the outlines in the motifs are examined, and then it also deals with the conceptual recognition of the geometric motifs used in the pulpits. The necessity of this research is that the pulpit is visually full of decorations and can represent the art, symbolic concepts, structure, and artistic relations of the considered periods. Also, less research has been done in the field of religious elements and speeches, especially the pulpit in Persian painting. It has not been sufficiently investigated through the lens of the painting of different eras and especially the formal and visual relationships. Therefore, this article can be an attempt to solve this deficiency.
The results show that based on the type "B" form; In the figurative form of the pulpit, the parts of the body, steps, seats, gates, and fences are used. However, it can be seen that the railings were not used in the pulpits of the Safavid era. The most concentration and use of motifs in both periods are in the "body" part of the pulpit. Also, the pulpits are depicted from sideview and oblique view, and the oblique pulpits have a better and more beautiful appearance. Due to the side view of most of the pulpits, the approximate height of each pulpit can be recognized according to the number of steps or through the surrounding lines. The number of stairs varies from 2 to 10 and they are medium and tall in terms of height. In fact, despite the minimum number of steps in some images, the height of the pulpits seems to be average. A total of 11 geometric patterns have been used in the abstract form of the pulpits. Meanwhile, the geometric patterns in the pulpits of the Timurid era have a higher diversity and density than the Safavid era. In addition, the use of Islamic and Khataee motifs was also evident in the pulpits which is more limited than geometric patterns, but it is used in 5 patterns; although they have been used more in Safavid pulpits. The abstract form was used in both periods, on one hand, based on type "C" in the form of surrounding lines of motifs, and on the other hand, in both cases, the "B" form, that is, the border or surrounding lines that create the shape of the pattern, as well as the color, has been used. Among these, the predominance of the use of form "C" in Timurid pulpits is in the form of outlines and design, while in Safavid pulpits, the type of color dependent on form "B" is used more.