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Garoosi A, Sadri M. (2021). Study of six drawings of Esfandiar's battle with dragons from Ferdowsi Shahnameh from Shiraz and Tabriz schools. JIC. 5(1), 85-104. doi:10.52547/jic.5.1.85
URL: http://jih-tabriziau.ir/article-1-130-en.html

What connects Ferdowsi's Shahnameh with people's culture and painting are stories with heroic and mythical themes that have made painters to try to depict it for many years. One of the themes in Shahnameh is the battle of famous heroes with legendary animals, including Simorgh and Dragon. Among the evil animals, which are a symbol of demonic and evil forces, the dragon has a special place and in Iranian mythology, it often appears as an embodiment of evil and evil deeds. One of the ways to portray the confrontation of these two opposing forces in Iranian epic literature is in the form of a superhuman war with a dragon. Haft Khan is his battle with the dragon, which is the manifestation of the battle between good and evil in the whole world. The dragon is one of the elements that is considered in all cultures and has many meanings. The battle with the dragon is a symbol of man's battle with the ego. This is the battle between good and evil. Dragons are commonly used in painting to represent demonic forces, and the role of dragons has had a special place in describing evil, darkness, evil, and the power of the soul. Therefore, in both schools, one of the most significant works illustrated by painters is the Shahnameh and the battle of Esfandiar and the dragon is one of the subjects in which it is depicted in various forms. This issue is important among the paintings of the two leading schools of Shiraz and Tabriz, and the paintings of this period have a different structure than the paintings of their predecessors. The main focus of this paper is a comparison of the visual and structuralist relationship between Esfandiar and the dragon in the drawings of Shiraz and Tabriz II schools. The present study is conducted to answer two questions: what visual features did the painters use to depict the dragon? and what do the selected images have in common with the visual-visual differentiation? This research is descriptive-analytical and the data is collected in a library method. The results show that the drawings of Shiraz school, unlike the drawings of Tabriz II school, have not been as successful as they should be and perhaps in using the functions and visual features to depict the desired theme. Painters in each period in accordance with the conditions of the time and the need for painting have used special visual features and it can be said that the features used in the works is greatly influenced by Ferdowsi's descriptions in Shahnameh which is the richest source for painters and the images. It has provided a clear and concise picture of the dragon, and the painters have been able to find a special artistic language, appropriate to the literary expression of the Shahnameh, and to give the images a value equal to that of literary crafts. Among the features that are commonly seen in all periods and are mentioned in the verses of Shahnameh, we can mention the following: the size of the dragon, fire and incitement, as well as the dragon's claw. Other visual features include the texture of scales such as the body of a snake, the body of a twisted body, the body color of a dragon and large teeth, the position on the screen and the direction of movement, which may not be seen as the same in Ferdowsi literature, but the artist of each has considered these descriptions as an adjective in the dragon he has depicted in various forms. Visual functions also include the type of composition, cutting the frame with the dragon body, twisting clouds, drought, a small presence of spectators, showing the scene in terms of the moment of confrontation, the color space that governs the image and the type of lines that govern it.