The Role of Time and its Relation with Synchrony and Diachrony Approach In Shiraz School of Painting

As a visual medium that produced stylistically distinct illustrations during Injuid, Muzaffarid, and Timurid eras, the Shiraz School of miniature featured a visual language that can be considered different from other schools in terms of continuity, empiricism, and the role of time. The present research proposes that if time is seen as a major contributor to the stylistic flourishing of the school, then its characteristics can be studied both synchronically and diachronically. The synchronic and diachronic approaches allow visual texts, such as miniatures, to be analyzed on the level of a specific period of time or a sequence of different periods, with the latter approach also enabling us to understand how each unit of a visual text has evolved in different situations. What makes them so significant is that they can be used to distinguish two types of semantics in a given visual text. Illustrations created throughout the active years of the Shiraz School-to be a tightly-composed scene, a landscape, or a portrait-can be analyzed using synchronic semantics, often with the purpose of exploring their intended meaning. Also, diachronic semantics makes it possible to analyze how the meaning of an illustration has evolved over time. Aiming to explore the role of time in Shiraz School miniatures and in relation to the synchronic and diachronic approaches, this research tries to answer the following: “In what ways can time be conceptualized and represented in a miniature, and how can the synchronic and diachronic approaches be employed to lay out the visual language of miniatures and to explore their evolution through history respectively?” Reviewing the existing literature and visual evidence, this descriptive/analytical research first studies different roles of time in a qualitative way, and then explores the distinct synchronic and diachronic approaches before analyzing and comparing their features in the context of Shiraz School illustrations and the associated factors. The population consists of illustrations depicting historical and epic scenes from Shahnameh, as they best represent the overall style of the diverse works created throughout the three periods of the Shiraz School. Results suggest that the role of time in Shiraz School miniatures emphasizes not only the importance of learning about linear, qualitative, linguistic, narrative, and spatial times, but also the necessity of understanding how sociocultural affairs affected the illustrations’ composition, use of perspective, and way of guiding the viewer’s gaze.
Valuable writings and research were considered in the course of conducting this research that from which one can refer to the article: “The Semiotics of Time and the Passage of Time: A Comparative Study of Verbal and Visual Works” Written by Farzan Sujoudi (1390) noted that is close enough to the topic at hand. Article "Investigating the Concept of Time and Place in Iranian Painting" The work of Mustafa Goodarzi and Elnaz Keshavarz (2007) In expressing the particular view of the Iranian painter to the analysis of two concepts of time and place and and how to reduce and eliminate the physical use of these elements by mentioning examples. Also Jamal Arabzadeh and Parham Peyvandi (1979) in the article "A study of time and place in Bayesnagari's Imaginary Pictures, with a phenomenological approach" Studying Shahnameh's paintings based on phenomenological approach through which the mechanism of the artist's consciousness and perception of the phenomena of time and place and its impact on the creation of the work. With these explanation, despite some research on the concept of time in Iranian painting, So far, its role and importance have not been considered especially in the Shiraz School of Painting, with the focus on explaining the types of time and analyzing synchronous and simultaneous approaches And this is an indication of the novelty of the present study.
The results showed that “time” had a central role in the medium development of Shiraz School. To answer the first question it should be said that the conceptualization and representation of time in the miniatures of the school are based on the linear, qualitative, linguistic and narrative times as well as spacetime. Accordingly, “linear time” is established in the relations of in-frame elements and on the other hand, it allows understanding the linear relations of different parts of the frame through intertextuality with the passage from the written text to the visual text and to outside of the frame. The passage of time and the occurrence of the events can be always understood in this way. However, “spacetime” includes linear, macro, reflexive and teleological aspects found in the miniature. Moreover, “narrative time” is not only displayed by the miniaturist (narrator) in the narrator/narrated binary, but is also dependent on the portrayal of the occurrence of the  narrated events and interactions by the main narrator of the story. In “linguistic time”, time is perceived not in the frame but outside of the frame and through textual and linguistic layers as well as associations made using language. In other words, the title of the miniature is substantially crucial in narrative reading of its time. Through this development, “qualitative time” refers to the internal and emotional aspects when the miniaturist paints the work to display the emotional quality of the miniature and reinforce its effects on the audience. In addition to the presence of different times in the miniatures of Shiraz School, the results indicated that based on the “synchronic approach”, the visual elements in the miniatures of the Injuids, the Muzaffarids, the Timurids separately possess positionality, directionality, and dimensionality, used in relation with other components and elements. In positionality, the common and general characteristics of Shiraz School can be found often in the tendency of miniaturists to use images with highly compressed compositions, emphasizing two or three dominant visual elements at the same time. It seems that the miniaturists sought to display their topics beside the surrounding elements, forming a relation between them and directing the viewer’s attention to the main elements, which express the intellectual aspect of the works. The simultaneous harmony of the background and foreground elements of the miniatures is characteristic of dimensionality and indicate the miniaturists’ tendency to escape flat visual spaces and attention to element planning. This also demonstrates the miniaturist’s interest in making the narratives visible in a dimensional space. Furthermore, directionality is an opportunity in the miniatures of Shiraz School to form a meaningful whole from the combinations of separate visual elements, resulting in an organized visual narrative. “Synchronic approach” allowed interpreting miniatures of Shiraz School in three consecutive historical periods and explaining the characteristics in terms of events and sociocultural conditions in the form of a text that is part of a historical system. Therefore, it was revealed that Shiraz School had different miniatures during the Injuid, the Mozaffarid, and the Timurid eras, and the visual language of the works were analyzed in terms of continuity and empirical contexts focusing on the importance of the role of “time” in an expression different from other artistic schools. In this regard, synchronic and diachronic approaches were used for textual-visual analysis of the miniatures in a particular time or consecutive layers of time. Put differently, synchrony was used to analyze the visual elements used together in relation with other components and elements, and diachrony was used to study the elements in the form of a text that is part of a historical system. Thus, aiming to analyze the role of “time” in the miniatures of Shiraz School, the study questions were answered using synchrony and diachrony.