Explanation of the Visual Systems Governing the Emblems in the Iranian, Indian and European Carpets of the 15th-17th Centuries AD

Introduction: Emblems are visual and identity structures with special characteristics. Knowing the components of this type of emblem with the aim of analyzing the visual components and practical needs is a suitable field of study. In the past, emblems were systematic structures aimed at introducing communities related to military and fighting forces in a region. As time passed, its practical application was expanded in many fields, and in various societies, people with certain social ranks took advantage of the identity and visual capabilities of the emblem structure. Emblems in a variety of combinations represented the authenticity and descent people on their belongings such as clothes and shields. The study of emblems can be considered a documented process in social-historical studies and provides visual perception and evaluation of the status of individuals or institutions. The main issue in this article is that carpets were also one of the vast areas showing emblems between the 15th and 17th centuries AD. The diversity in these visual components is very rich and it becomes possible to understand their differences and commonalities by analyzing and comparing the case studies. Considering that most of the past research on emblems in the field of genealogy and their associations with different families have been carried out in a specific times and places, and their use in artworks has received less attention, the importance of this article lies in its limited, but different study of emblems in artworks which is worth considering. The necessity of the study lies in the fact that carpets of the 15th-17th centuries are a platform that can be studied in connection with various emblems, to the extent that some carpets with emblems display emblems that were not considered as part of visual-social culture of that weaving area and were non-native.
Purposes & Questions: The purpose of this article is to analyze the emblems of carpets in a specific time and diverse geography in order to reveal their differences and commonalities in productions of different regions with a specialized approach arising from the visual frameworks governing the emblems. This article addresses the following questions: The emblems reflected on the carpets of 15th-17th centuries AD have which visual elements in the standard structure of the emblems? According to the analysis of the emblems’ characteristics, what practical requirements do the depicted emblems in the carpets follow?
Methods: The present article uses descriptive-analytical method based on library data. The statistical population with a purposeful selection method includes 9 complete carpets: Iran (2), India (2), Spain (3), England (2) and partial carpets from Spain, which were analyzed by thematic analysis. Based on this, samples were selected to achieve representativeness and comparability in a homogeneous class. The research method, relying on details of the data, is the analysis of the samples by observing the studied texts (analyzing the background and conventional structure of the emblems) on the first step, then the analysis of the research data (introduction of the emblems in the carpets), and then presentation of the information in a detailed classification format based on certain axes (as the means of distinguishing the identified emblems from each other, a way to display the emblems on carpets and their use). In the obtained results, to answer the first question of the article, the main structure of the emblems depicted in the carpets was analyzed from various aspects such as the elements that make up the emblems, the number of emblems in the same or non-identical form, and their location separately.
Findings & Results: In most cases, the shield and its decorative images are considered as the main and common aspect of the emblems, and all the elements of a standard emblem were visible in few cases in terms of the convergence of the parts. In relation to the number of emblems depicted in carpets, some samples were limited to displaying one or several repeated similar emblems, and in two cases, more than one non-identical emblem was included by the designer. Identical or non-identical emblems were generally arranged singly or in groups of three, four and five in vertical or horizontal axes within the carpets. Borders were also the second option for placing the emblems; observed in two of the study’s samples. In response to the second question of the article, it was confirmed that most of the time, the emblems woven into the carpets were commissioned by special families such as nobles and royal dependents, and because they were generally woven into the body of carpets, they conveyed a high degree of identity. Also, emblems were displayed under the supervision of people who were connected with commercial companies, and their commercial function was more tangible. The third function of the emblems reflected on carpets of the 15th-17th centuries AD was slightly different from the necessities due to which the emblems were created, and while conveying the degree of religious beliefs, carpets acquired a richer religious aspect due to the display of such emblems.