A Comparative Study of Horse Images in Iranian Paintings (Ilkhānid Period) and Chinese Art (Song and Yuan Periods)

The Mongol invasion of Iran [551-663 H] laid the foundation of an integrated empire from far east Asia to east Europe and led to the formation of the so-called Ilkhānid dynasty and the decline of Persian Empire. For a time, Ilkhānid dynasty removed former obstacles in east-west contacts. This resulted in the promotion of mutual Iran-China cultural relations and the formation of a new artistic outlook. Throughout the history of Persian Art, some foreign ideas and forms have been borrowed by Iranian artists. The occupation of Iran and China, along with the prosperity of trade relations, caused the reciprocal influence of arts and crafts of these countries. Loyalty to traditions made each one mingle imported cultural elements with their own culture. Consequently, the Chinese art, brought to Iran by Ilkhānid dynasty, caused Iranian artists, who were concurrently affected by Seljuk art, to present their works by reproducing the Chinese art. The Mongol rulers influenced by the Chinese rich culture and art, transmitted their artistic tendencies to their ally in Iran through political, commercial, and cultural connections and laid the foundations for the mutual impact of Iranian and Chinese art in various fields, namely, painting. In this regard, due to the influence of Chinese painters and the use of paper, pen & ink, techniques of coloring and drawing animals, a new style of painting was developed in Iran. The bookmaking in the Mongol period owed its boom to the powerful Ilkhānid central government, who put an end to the political and intellectual domination of the ruling caliphs and transferred the centrality of illustrated book publication from Baghdad to Tabriz; the capital of the Ilkhānate. A significant artistic development was noticeable in Iranian art of painting during the last decades of Ilkhānid period (653-754 H). Iranian paining was generally used in book design, drawing images of mythical figures, royal family, hunting scenes, battlefields, and different related ceremonies. During this time, book illustrations fall deeply under the influence of Song and Yuan periods. It is because, art-loving Ilkhānid rulers; namely, Ghāzān Khān (694-703 H) and Öljaitū (703-716 H), along with the courtiers, namely, Rashid al-Din Fazlullah Hamadāni promoted and encouraged Chinese’s art styles. In view of the evolution of Iranian art during the Mongol Ilkhānid period and the development of its painting under the impact of Chinese art in the last decades, the present research attempts to study the position of horse images in the paintings of these two periods. The goals of this research were to gain access to the evolution of horse images during Ilkhānid period in Iranian civilization and Song and Yuan periods in Chinese civilization and to distinguish the similarities, differences in horse images during these periods. The research questions are: 1.What transformations have horse images undergone in Iran (the Ilkhānid period) and China (Song and Yuan periods)? 2. What are the similarities, differences and representations of horse image in the abovementioned periods? Bearing in mind different artistic viewpoints, the present study was carried out based on the historical and descriptive-analytical methods of research, along with, the library and citations techniques. To examine horse images in the illustrations of the Ilkhānid period, the book "Manif’-al-Ĥaiwān" -available in the Morgan Library in New York- in addition to the collection of illustrations related to Sultan Abu Said's Shahnameh in the Metropolitan Museum of America were studied. Relating to different horse poses, three paintings were chosen from Iranian Ilkhānid and two from the Chinese paintings of Song and Yuan periods. Initially, the horse image and its characteristics were defined and then comparatively studied using a descriptive-analytic method. The results of the research indicated that, for a while, horse images -of interest to both Iranian and Chinese artists- were depicted in various forms of visual arts. Although, Chinese paintings enjoyed more variation in performance and expression than Iranian paintings, comparative analysis of the paintings indicated that Iranian works had adopted limited elements from the Chinese art. Iranian artists with their inherent genius absorbed parts of the Chinese art and combined them with their own style. In the former Iranian paintings, the limited poses of horses and riders and their faces were drawn in either profile or oblique profile. Nevertheless, from the time of the Mongol rule, due to the contact with Chinese art, Iranian artists paid more attention to the variety of poses from different viewpoints. Although, color variations were clearly noticeable in the design of the Ilkhānid horse, the Chinese artist, especially in the Song period, used the sole color of the paper with linear designs and tried to show the horse in a free and peaceful nature. The findings indicated that the principal of mutual impact of cultures held true between Iranian and Chinese civilizations. As a result, the idea of unilateral impact of Chinese art on Iranian art is no more acceptable.