Reading Qajar clothes with Human motives existing in Tar-O-Pood Museum

Salour, Neda; Ghanooni, Mohsen

doi:10.22034/ciom.2024.718882

Reading Qajar clothes with Human motives existing in Tar-O-Pood Museum

https://doi.org/10.22034/ciom.2024.718882

Volume 3, Issue 8 - Serial Number 8
Autumn 2026

Bunyān-i hunar; justārhā-yi mūzah/dārī, marimmat, bāstānshināsī va tārīkh-i hunar (Foundation of Art; Studies of Museums, Conservation, Archeology and Art History)

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

neda salour ¹

mohsen ghanooni ²

¹ دانش آموخته دکتری تاریخ هنر

² دانش آموخته دکتری پژوهش هنر، مرمت آثار تاریخی

Abstract

Qajar Period is one of the most significant eras in the art history of Iran, in which royal sculpting and visual realism appeared in a new style in visual arts, especially painting and textile. In the primary half of Qajar period, particularly during the reign of FathAli- Saha, the focus of the painters was on the king and the royal family in every artistic field. Compared to other Qajar kings, FathAli-Shah has been most painted by the artists and painters. His figure was painted in artificial positions in various techniques at different levels. This has caused the miniature painting and human motives find their way through other fields of art; including, zarbaft (brocade) textile weaving and patterned velvet; which was formerly woven with geometrical herbal patterns.
       Researchers, leaning on this historical background, coined a new theory based on the fact that human motives in Qajar textiles were not only ornamental, but also contained social and symbolic concepts. These figures reflected the power, transited from the royal court to the public culture sector. And it signified a transformation in taste from Safavid symbolic and mystic aestheticism to a more narrative, experimental and realistic Qajar version.
       The methodology is descriptive-analytical, and based on physical study of museum works, documents and library. The statistical society includes two pieces of zarbaft textile and one piece of velvet textile, from the treasury of Cultural Institute of Bonyad Museums, containing human motives. The textiles have been studied in combination of colors, the material of warp and weft, the weaving technique and patterning. Afterwards the results were compared to other paintings and hand prints of the same era.
Introduction
Qajar dynasty caused many fundamental changes in arts and culture since thirteenth AH. Alongside the modernism wave, the traditional arts weren’t exceptional from these changes. Although these motives are unrealistic, allegorical and symbolic, in the tailwind, we can observe the influence of European art on Iranian art with traces of realism and visualizing Iranian life routine on Iranian art works during this era. It is worth mentioning that in the first half of Qajar period, especially during the reign of FathAli-Shah, the artists, at different fields, would focus on the king and the court, even showing doing daily chores of the royal family. Compared to other Qajar kings, FathAli-Shah has been most painted by the artists and painters. His figure was painted in artificial positions in various techniques at different levels.
       Transiting from Fath-Ali Shah art era towards Naseri rea, we can witness the European art and realism invigorated. Besides painting on the canvas and tile, the changes in Qajar period have also appeared in   textile industry and patterning. Textile industry, in Qajarid Era, stood after Islamic era art-industry as the second best, in terms of quality and richness of the color (table 3). However, in political-economic turbulences at the late time of this era, until the stability in art during Fath-Ali Shah’s period, the art of textile was fading; until with revitalization of other types of art, textile industry got revived too. With this difference that the majority of woven clothes where either plain, or had very simple abstract herbal or geometrical motives, far different from Safavid patterns and landscapes.
       Limited usage of human motives have been mostly in single figures with moarragh techniques, painting, embroidery or ghalamkar print, except for a sample textile from Naderid era which currently stays in Victoria and Albert Museum (table 3), and the human figure similar to the figures attributed to Ghyias from Safavid period in the context of the textile. Only three pieces of this fabric with human figure have been found in the first half of Qajar period; which are now in Tar-o-pood Museum of Yazd.
       Therefore, this study aims to introduce these unique pieces of textile to respond to the following questions: How similar or different the textiles are in terms of material, techniques, the spectrum of colors, and the woven patterns? How have the woven patterns on the clothes and the arts contemporary with that emerged?

The analysis and interpretation of works
1.Zarbaft cloth No.1
Time: Qajar, Texture: Daraei from Isfahan, Material: Silk & Golabtun, Dimension: 150×79 Centimeter
       The cloth is zarbaft with ribbons of human, animal and plant motives, which repeat in ordered patterns. Among the patterns, there is an inscription saying: “FathAli-Shah, the prince, year 1203”, attributed to his era. This is a prominent work which has embodied royal sculpting on the surface of textile; A reproduction of royal art on textile.
       Comparing to Qajar miniature, the figures on this fabric are either full-faced or half-faced, without any specific gestures. The dominant colors are beige, brown, or golden, and the zarrin (gold) texture has given a royal look to it. From an aesthetic perspective, human visualization reflects dominance and respect, not daily life. Hence this work is a symbol of the political identity of the time.

2. zarbaft cloth No.2
Time: Qajar, Origin: Kashan-Yazd. Dimension: 65×72-centimeter, Silk and Golabtun, herbal color.
       This textile is a combination of, animal, human and herbal color. The change in color in the rows in because of different weft. Therefore, in a technical eye, a vast variety in color and formal modulation is observed; which create visual movement. Human motives in smaller patterns have fit among other ornamental motives; despite the previous cloth, in which the figures were more central.
       It is said that these fabrics show the human motives entering more daily practical textile, diminishing the distance between royal and public art. Compared to other visual versions of its contemporary time, mild colors and symmetrical patterns remind us of ornamental approaches of Safavid era; yet, with Qajar realist spirit.
3. Velvet Fabric
       Time: Qajar, Origin: Kashan, Silk velvet with hand-made cotton layer, Dimension: 59×85 centimeter.
      This work is a very unique spectacular velvet piece with human motif. Vertical patterns are seen with turquoise and brown coloring on chickpea beige. The uneven texture of the velvet causes a play of light and shadow on the surface of the cloth, and adds doubled-layer visual value to it. In a symbolic view, turquoise and brown reveals contrast between traditional spirituality and modernist Qajar world; Turquoise as a mystic color, alongside with brown representing soil and earthly life. Human motives, in this work, amongst the herbal patterns, show a high resemblance between the ancient figure of man and tree of life.

General analysis and Relation with Cultural Texture
Human motives, in these fabrics have been analyzed from three viewpoints:
1-formalism and style:
       Using the relativity of body standing and half-faced angles, limiting lines representing the effect of royal and post-Safavid miniature painting.
2- Study of colors:
       Dominant warm colors (brown, golden, chickpea beige) with limited turquoise and green shading have made the figures look royally glamorous. However, at the level of color psychology, not only do they represent the glamour, but also the change in the time soul moving towards more earthly and realistic human motives.

3. Concepts and semantics
The role of human in textiles altered from royal glamor to social and cultural iconology. The research shows human in Qajar art descended in Safavid era to a more narrative, reflecting real-life substance. Regarding to the historical data in Tar-O-Pood museum, the storage for keeping the works from Qajar era, in Yazd, is itself part of the history of textile industry shaping in Iran. This environmental consistency shows the textile not only as a mere production, but also a cultural document of economic events, paint passion, and signs of social class. The research also with an aesthetic approach explains how importing European textile industry has broken a relative record in hand-craftsmanship in late Qajar. However, in an artistic view, European patterns have also expanded realism in Iranian patterns.

Conclusion
1. Qajar textiles being studied put the consistency in Safavid tradition in a new frame: from ritual motives to Human ones, and from royal symbols to cultural expression.
2. Material, color and pattern function in a unified meaningful structure; warm colors for richness, golden texture for social class, and human motives for social narratives.
3. Tar-O-Pood museum, conserving these works on the historical setting of Janoob-e-Yazd knitting and weaving factory, has provided the opportunity for “cultural reading” of textile industry. Where art expanded and moved from palaces to city life.
4. Studying the textiles, with a humanistic approach, and pictorial iconography can recreate a deeper understanding of Iranian identity in transition from tradition to modernity. Qajar textiles, not only are ornamental objects, but also visually cultural contexts which introduce the history, society and aesthetic mentality of that era. Therefore, we may call the art of textile as a mirror which reflects the evolution in the visual reflection. A change from royal glory to cultural realism, from kings’ figures, to day-to-day human, and from an ornamental product to a historical document. An interdisciplinary reading of color, patter, material and meaning which reveal social and aesthetic values of Qajar era in a complete frame.

Keywords

human motives

Qajar textile

material

pattern

color

Subjects

Art history

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