The Survey of Transformation of the Demon Illustration in Iranian Painting with Emphasis on Shahnameh Illustrations from the Ilkhanid Period to the End of the Qajar Period

Although the concept of demon has faced ups and downs throughout the history of Persian culture, but it has gradually become a symbol of the devil and the force of evil that stands against the front of goodness. In various literary sources and socio-cultural roots, we see that the demon on the one hand has a divine status and on the other hand has gradually acquired human qualities. One of the goals of this research is to find out what qualities have been created for the demon in Iranian literature and art in this evolutionary process. But, what is the main motivation of the researcher is to survey the drawings and literature to achieve the qualities that the demon deserves as a creature that, along with power, has intelligence and ingenuity; a creature that the Iranians once considered worthy of worship and had a godly status and then in a complete rotation has become a symbol of the devil. However, it is still so great that the defeat of the demon at the end of Haft Khan Rostam is the cause of his evolution. Shahnameh, as the greatest epic work of Iran, has always been the source of artistic creations, and throughout history, painters have chosen the stories of Shahnameh as the subject of the work. Demons not only play roles as the evil creatures in Shahnameh stories, but also they have key roles in many of them. And according to this, the analysis of demon illustrations over time can provide insights into the cultural and artistic conditions of various historical periods and Iranian painting schools. This article aims to understand the analytical historical course of the concept and the role of demon in literature and Shahnameh and its consequences in Shahnameh illustration in the following questions: 1) in the historical course, what are the changes to demon illustration in contrast to its role in literature? 2) What are the formal and visual features of demons image in Shahnameh pictures?
The research method has been descriptive and analytical, using library sources to collect data. In fact, by examining the historical course of the demon image in the Shahnameh, we want to list the formal and apparent elements that can be found as repetitive patterns. It is also an attempt to approach the view and imagination of the Iranian painter when creating the role of the demon by analyzing the historical analysis of the demon in Iranian culture, which is mostly through literary narrations and specifically the Shahnameh. To this aim, the famous Shahnameh manuscripts of Iranian art history from the rule of the Mongols and specifically the Injus until the end of the Qajar period were studied.  The statistical population of the study consisted of 5 Shahnamehs, 733 AH, Baysunghuri, Joki, Tahmasebi and Shahnameh Davari, and 8 paintings containing demons image, which have 4 White demons, 2 Akwans, 1 Arjang and 18 other demons. The results of the study show that demon illustration became a special identity by repeating the visual traditions of the painters. Apparent traits such as the shape of the limbs, the manner of covering the demon, the type of jewelry, and the use of semi-human semi-animal compounds in the shape of the skull and the appearance of the demon have become recurring common factors, and over time have brought the demons’ features in the Shahnameh paintings closer together. Also, visual details such as the material of loincloth, shape of the jewelry, and texturing of the skin of demons’ bodies can be observed among other features in the course of historical development of demon illustration; initially we find them to be considerably simpler which in more recent Shahnamehs have changed and became more pleasing to the eye. On the other hand, while adhering to the demons’ characteristics of the Shahnameh as well as the oral traditions, the painters have prioritized the tradition of painting and artistic creativity in some cases. Negative traits such as violence and mischief have also been created by utilizing predatory animal components such as lions or cats and dogs, while the use of human traits in demons can be attributed to the demons’ positive traits, such as being a teacher, being a musician, and commanding. In parallel, the creative minds of some painters caused the demons to escape the trap of monotony; this means that besides the commonalities of the demons in the illustrations of the analyzed Shahnamehs, we do not see any two demons that look like copies. Creating a mythical and unreal creature like a demon is not possible only through the attributes mentioned in literature and requires creativity and innovation, and the results showed that artists in different historical periods paid attention to this point.