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Dadvar A, Panjehbashi E, Godazgar S. (2025). Iconology of Shirin's Motif in Three Qajar Pictorial Rugs with the Theme Shirin's Bath and Khosrow's Gaze. JIC. 9(1), 57-77. doi:10.61882/jic.9.1.388
URL: http://jih-tabriziau.ir/article-1-388-en.html

Carpets, like other works of art, have always reflected the intellectual, cultural, and visual transformations of society and have provided a platform for representing ideas, beliefs, and social conditions. As one of the important manifestations of the artistic developments of the Qajar era, pictorial carpets included diverse themes such as images of kings, ancient Iranian works, epic and romantic stories of classical Iranian literature, images of women, and religious themes. The love story of Khosrow and Shirin, by the poet Nizami Ganjeh of the sixth century AH, played a significant role in the formation of these carpets. This study seeks to answer why and how the scene of Shirin bathing and Khosrow’s gaze was represented in Qajar pictorial carpets, and what connections this representation had with the social, cultural, and aesthetic contexts of the Qajar era? The research aims to analyze the explicit and implicit implications of the motif of Shirin, through an iconological analysis of three Qajar pictorial rugs. This research is fundamental in purpose and its method is descriptive-analytical. Data collection was done through a library research and the samples were three Shirin’s Bathing rugs. The findings show that the close connection between literature and image led to the depiction of many literary stories on artworks. The high potential for visualizing the story of Khosrow and Shirin made it an ideal subject for representation on carpets. The representation of Shirin’s bathing scene on rugs was influenced by the cultural and social conditions of the Qajar period and the emergence of the myth of the foreign woman as an idealized woman and carrying implications of the changing position of women in the visual mentality of that period.