Volume 14, Issue 28 (9-2024)
mth 2024, 14(28): 27-44 |
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Khajefard M. (2024). Comparative Study of Afterlife Representation in Mir Heydar’s Mi’raj-nama and Bethlehem Church in Isfahan to Exemplify Coomaraswamy’s True Philosophy of Art. mth. 14(28), 27-44. doi:10.61186/mth.14.28.27
URL: http://mth.aui.ac.ir/article-1-1999-en.html
URL: http://mth.aui.ac.ir/article-1-1999-en.html
Ph.D student of Art Studies, Faculty of Research Excellence in Art and Entrepreneurship, Art University of Isfahan, Iran. , mkhajefard@gmail.com
Abstract: (930 Views)
In recent years, traditionalism has entered into the study of the art of traditional and primitive societies as well as the art of religions and it became one of the most important discourses in understanding and studying art. Traditionalists usually develop their ideas about art without providing any reasons or examples, and generalize these ideas to the art of other societies. This descriptive-comparative study primarily aims to scrutinize the “true philosophy of art” which is delineated by Ananda Coomaraswamy in “Christian and Oriental Philosophy of Art”. Additionally, it seeks to validate Coomaraswamy’s assertions by comparing how the afterlife is represented in Islamic and Christian artistic traditions. For this purpose, after describing the most significant concepts and ideas of the aforementioned book based on data collected from library documents, the images of heaven and hell in the wall paintings of Bethlehem Church in Isfahan have been comparatively studied by the paintings of Mir Heydar’s Mi’raj-nama which belongs to Herat school of painting. It should be noted that in this comparative study, "Compositional Interpretation" will be used as an auxiliary tool. The results of this comparison show that: first, religious art is essentially visual theology; the images of Bethlehem Church in Isfahan and Mir Heydar’s Mi’raj-nama both have a close connection and strong adherence to the sacred texts upon which they are based. Second, when visual arts derive from a divine inspiration and align in their spiritual premises and purposes, they will also have similarities in their physical representations and overall structures. Third, The symbolic expressions in the images of Bethlehem Church in Isfahan and Mir Heydar’s Mi’raj-nama show significant similarities, indicating that symbols are the universal language of art. All of these results are examples that confirm Coomaraswamy’s ideas.
Keywords: Christian and Oriental Philosophy of Art, Ananda Coomaraswamy, Mir Heydar’s Mi’raj-nama, Bethlehem Church in Isfahan, Afterlife representations
Type of Study: Research |
Subject:
Visual Arts
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