Eleventh International Conference on The Image

Abstract

The translation of architectural structures in Persian miniature painting is a significant phenomenon in Islamic art. While few medieval architectural structures have remained in Iran, such paintings mainly from Timurid and Safavid eras, illustrate a variety of architectural spaces. In the absence of buildings, these images are suggested as primary references to study Iranian architecture. It seems that the lack of acquaintance with the visual language of Persian miniature and the absence of an analytical method are obstacles for decoding the spatial settings of paintings. Persian miniature’s pictorial mode is not based on the linear perspective as standard models for the artistic portrayal of the outer world. To understand such spatial arrangement, experts suggest that the observer requires to make specific visual and mental readjustments to a different way of seeing. Despite the valuable discourses addressing Persian miniature’s conceptual and technical aspects, it is still challenging to make that readjustment. The current study contributes to this growing area of research by initiating a method which provides a practical tool to surpass the existing theoretical discussions on the vocabulary of Persian miniatures. This method defines different spatial layers in the paintings and delaminates them by cutting and folding, which results in creating pop-up 3D models. Such method has been applied to analyse various architectural settings in certain Persian paintings, including “landscape,” “urban complex,” “palace,” “mosque,” and “mobile architecture.” The 3D pop-up models decode the spatial arrangements, advance the iconographical analysis, and expedite the historical and social studies of the architectural elements.