Breaking the frame in traditional Persian paintings, a prelude to remediation

ABSTRACT

Frame breaking in traditional Persian paintings, also known as Persian miniature, is a practice where parts of the frame are intentionally left open for some painting elements to exit the frame. This repeatedly occurred in this tradition; and was used methodically in Herat and Tabriz II schools. However, the motivation behind it is not completely known. Persian miniature, in its heyday, departed from its structural form and esthetic principles mostly because of its acquaintance and fusion with the then new form of European paintings and its most notable technique, linear perspective. Frame breaking could be thought of a sign of remediation and reform in Persian miniature. More specifically, frame breaking was a premediation sign, which would shape the later changes in traditional Persian paintings. As such, by emphasizing the frame, albeit broken rather than eliminating it, we become aware of the medium or media. This interpretation is adopted from hypermediacy according to Bolter and Grusin’s remediation theory. Here, an attempt is made to analyze the practice of frame breaking in traditional Persian paintings through this theory.

KEYWORDS:

• Breaking of the frame
• linear perspective
• remediation
• hypermediacy

Acknowledgements

This paper includes research results obtained as a part of PhD dissertation research of the first author entitled ‘A study of visual adaptation and visual relations of intermediality – the case study of using technical and esthetical capacities of traditional Persian painting (Negargari) in animation.’

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Bagher Bahram Shotorban

Bagher Bahram Shotorban is a PhD student of Art Research in the Faculty of Art at Tarbiat Modares University. He holds an MA in animation from the Art University of Tehran, Iran. He is a lecturer in the Faculty of Multimedia at Tabriz Islamic Art University. His main research areas include visual studies, traditional Persian paintings, animation and game art design. He has completed several research projects as a supervisor and adviser and delivered articles in seminars.

Ali Asghar Fahimifar

Ali Asghar Fahimifar, born in 1963, holds a PhD in Art History and Philosophy of Art from the University of Central England in Birmingham. Now he is an Associate Professor at Tarbiat Modares University and head of the Art Research Department, Faculty of Art and Architecture, Tarbiat Modares University in Iran. He has written more than 150 scientific and research articles in Persian, English and Arabic journals and conferences, and is author of 15 volumes of books in the fields of media and media philosophy and philosophy of art. His research interests include art history, philosophy of art, media, and aesthetics. He has written several screenplays produced on Iranian television and also published.

Mohammad Ali Safoora

Mohammad Ali Safoora holds an MA in direction of animation-cinema from the University of Tarbiat Modares, Tehran, Iran. He received his PhD in art research (animation studies) from the University of Art, Tehran, Iran. Safoora is a member of the scientific board of the University of Tarbiat Modares and has run research projects, held workshops and delivered speeches and articles in many seminars.

Yoones A. Sekhavat

Yoones A. Sekhavat is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Multimedia at Tabriz Islamic Art University. He holds a PhD in Computer Science from the Memorial University of Newfoundland and a post-doc from the University of Alberta in Canada. His main research areas include serious games, human-computer interaction and digital arts. He is the head of the Cognitive Augmented Reality lab (www.CARLab.ir) at the Faculty of Multimedia and is the winner of several serious games competitions including GALA2020, SeGAP2020, and SeGAP2019. His research has been published in IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, IEEE Transactions on Human-Machine Systems, IEEE Transactions on Games, International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction as well as COG, SeGAH, VLDB, and several other journals and conferences.