Criteria of Artistic Expression in the First and Second Half of Qajar Era with an Emphasis on the Murals of Royal Reception in Negarestan Palace and Nezamiyeh Mansion

Wall painting stands among the prominent art media for displaying royal themes in Qajar era. There were many murals in the palaces and buildings of that period now mostly destroyed, however descriptions or pictures of which are available in historical texts to study and observe. The royal (New Year) reception wall painting of Fath Ali Shah in Negarestan palace and that of Naser ad-Din Shah in Nezamiyeh mansion are two significant cases in this respect. These two historic and monumental paintings characterize special visual features which are representative of art language in the first and second half of the Qajar era. Here, there are two main questions to answer: (1) what special stylistic features of Qajar art have been represented in these works? (2) What different standards are to be recognized in each? The results of the research illustrate that each wall painting conveys a common sense of authority, absolute power and the great personal dignity of the ruler, and each one displays the great number of the monarch’s subjects and attendants as well. Yet, what distinguishes the two works from each other and at the same makes them the visual representative of their own period art is their “semantic” and “mimetic” aspects of representation. The former aspect has been reflected in idealized, conventional and established standards in the form of prescriptive criteria and the representation of aspirations. Semantic portraiture actually tends towards uniformity. On the other hand, mimetic aspect of portraiture in the second half of Qajar art is inclined towards realism with elements of objectiveness, distinction, individualism, and different appearances. All these features have been manifested first in the portraiture of Fath Ali Shah and his attendants in Negarestan mural, and then in Naser ad-Din Shah’s portrait and those of his courtiers.