Reflections of Social Realities in Iranian Painting (Case Study of the Painting of Layla and Majnun in School by Sheikhzadeh)

The inclusion of Iranian paintings in various literary, scientific, and historical books has led to this art being consistently considered an accompaniment to the written text and simply serving it, but some recent research attempts to discover its independent values in this art. The aim of this article is to analyze a painting titled "Layla and Majnun in School" from an illustrated version of the Khamsa (Quintet) of Nizami dated 1524 by a famous artist of the Safavid era. Sheikhzadeh deciphers the social realities reflected in the painting and combines them with the knowledge of historical sources about the schools of the Safavid era. May this combination make some of the realistic values of the paintings and, consequently, the art of painting more evident, and may the existing knowledge about the old schools of Iran increase. To achieve the aforementioned goal, questions such as: What is the relationship between literary texts, painting, and social realities? What role does the painter’s lived experience play in their artistic work? Moreover, which one is more capable of recording it? One of the findings of this research is that the difference in materials, which in written text is "words", and in painting art is "color" and "form," allows the painter to have greater power in describing the surrounding realities. The research method is descriptive-analytical-comparative. In this way, what is depicted in the scope of the painting, including the school environment, people, their actions, clothing and adornments, objects, and other visual elements in the work, are compared with the historical realities of the time, as recorded in written sources or Nizami's poems, in order to assess their ability to capture the social realities through both art forms.
The importance of the present research is that if it is proven that Iranian paintings are authentic in describing social realities of different eras, they can be criticized and interpreted apart from the literary text. Given the centuries-old continuity of the art of painting in Iran, the diversity and abundance of their themes, and as a result, the vast volume of paintings, an infinite field will open up for research from various angles, including the study of Iranian social realities based on paintings from each period. For example, previously, researchers in education have consistently turned to historical and literary sources or Western travelogues to examine the history of schools to picture old Iranian schools. However, they have faced limitations, while paintings are another rich source that has been neglected. This article demonstrates that visual texts offer a more precise, direct, and descriptive form of expression compared to literary texts. It goes without saying that all works of art are, to varying degrees, influenced by the time and place of their creation. Iranian paintings are no exception to this rule; in fact, they mirror their time and era. By comparing the text of the story, namely Nizami Ganjavi's poem, with what was depicted in the painting "Layla and Majnun in School," it became clear that the story was only a pretense for the artist to visualize and portray his creativity, findings, and lived experience of school and what was happening in such an environment. The weak link between text and image is so much so that it can be ignored, and Sheikhzadeh's painting can be considered as an independent image from the schools of the first half of the 16th century; with all the subtleties, details, colors, and patterns that the painter's keen sense of detail, relying on personal experience and visual skills and observing the prevailing stylistic conventions, has immortalized on the paper's surface.
Studying the details of Sheikhzadeh's painting as a visual text assures painting lovers that the diverse values of this art are such that Iranian paintings can be studied in a separate context without considering their connection to the literary text and can be used as efficient documents in numerous researches, including enlightenment on the social realities of different eras. This research shows that what the painter presents about the realities of the world around him is far more expressive and realistic than what is found in literary or historical sources. This superiority must be explored through the materials of these two arts. The painter works with a wide variety of materials that can be measured and perceived objectively, while the tools of the poet or historian are words and phrases, which are inherently subjective and lack objective elements.

Keywords: Iranian painting, Nizami Ganjavi, Schools, Layla and Majnun, Sheikhzadeh, Social events.