Comparative Aesthetics of Religious Murals (Karbala Event) in Imamzadeh of Zeyd and Tekyeh of Moaven al-Molk in Interaction with Ta'ziyeh

Religious mural in the sense of Shiite art, with the centerpiece of the Imams of religion, especially Imam Hussein (AS) and his companions with a few hundred years of history, is one of the most important types of Iranian wall art, which culminated in the Qajar period and in conjunction with Ta'ziyeh. Ta'ziyeh, which is itself a Shiite art, dates back to the same time as the religious wall painting and was formed to protect the martyrs of the Ashura event of the year 61 AH and reached its peak in the Qajar period. Religious murals and Ta'ziyeh were both among the ordinary and popular arts of the Qajar period. The connection between these two artistic forms, one of which is pictorial and visual, and the other is dramatic, has led to the creation of commonalities among them. Although there is no example of the Qajar Ta'ziyah, there are many examples of religious murals of this era that have been implemented with various techniques, and the common features of the Qajar religious monuments are subject to the Ta'ziyah's formal and aesthetic structure. Zeyd Imamzadeh's murals in Isfahan and Tekyeh of Moaven al-Molk in Kermanshah, which were created in the first half of the 14th century, are among the most prominent examples of Qajar religious mural. In this paper, these religious wall paintings were initially examined and evaluated in interaction with Ta'ziyah and its common characteristics, and then both sets of paintings were compared in terms of the technical, formal and aesthetic structure. The purpose of this research is to compare the aesthetics of religious paintings of Tekyeh of Moaven al-Molk and Imamzadeh of Zeyd in interaction with Ta'ziyah's religious exhibitions. This research seeks to answer these questions, how may the relationship between the Qajar religious wall paintings and the Ta'ziyeh shows be explained? How have different engineering techniques influenced the structure and aesthetics of wall paintings of Zeyd Imamzadeh and Tekyeh of Moaven al-Molk? This research uses a developmental, descriptive-analytical and comparative method. Data analysis is also qualitative. To explain the results of this research, it can be said that the interaction of religious wall painting with the display of shared features of Ta’zieh is manifested in the characteristics of thematic, literary, temporal and spatial unity, and the symbolization of the color of the religious murals of this era; so that martyrdom of Imam Hussein (AS) was the basis of all Ta'ziyehs and the main topic of Religious Murals.  Murals were depicted in the same places that there were displays of  Ta'ziyehs. Lack of temporal and spatial unity means breaking the real time and place of various narratives and going beyond to help imagination and mixing of them with a new design. In both types of narrative expressions, the form of dramatic and the form of pictorial, symbolic expression, that is also visible most of all in colors and badges have been common in both categories of Ta'ziyeh and mural. Wall paintings of Zeyd Imamzadeh and Tekyeh of Moaven al-Molk also have the common grounds of interacting with Ta'ziyeh bearing the described characteristics, but despite these similar characteristics, the formal structure of their paintings is different. Since the paintings of the two sets have been implemented with two different techniques of gypsum and tiling, and each technique has certain features and constraints, it seems that the structural and aesthetic differences between these paintings are due to differences in application of executive techniques and expression tools. Tiling due to Technical and executive features, does not provide the painter with possibility of continuous painting and requires framing, therefore paintings of Tekyeh of Moaven al-Molk have framing, background and a specific range. But gypsum does not pose this limit and the artist has been able to illustrate continuous paintings without framing. Therefore paintings of Zeyd Imamzadeh are linked, Interwoven and without framing.  These conditions were also seen in other murals that have been executed in both techniques of gypsum and tiling. So techniques and executive tools have transformed formal structure and aesthetics of works and had a major role in the outbreak of artist’s creativity.