Muraqqa‘-i 1633: A Case Study of Text and Image Relationship in Safavid Paintings

Using five single-page folios, and the Muraqqa‘-i 1633 of Golestān Palace Library this paper focuses on Safavid paintings in the sixteen and seventeen centuries and argues for a direct relationship between text and image. In this paper, I will argue that while some folios demonstrate a disconnection between text and image, others can demonstrate a direct relationship between the two; and draw attention to the channel of communication where the image demonstrates the outer allure, and the text highlights the inner refinement. The result of the added literature, inscribing poetry with a moral message, creates an idealized man who could serve as a model of perfection, not only visually but also in character. Viewing these paintings through a lens of voyeurism and spectatorship elicited the patron’s desire to observe and be observed in return. The poetic text accentuates the importance of gaze in the Lacanian sense, constructing portraits in these paintings as “objects of desire.”