User:Sarahmohamad10/Qajar art
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Gender was easily blurred in early Qajar Iran paintings, displaying similarities in body and facial features. Men and women were expected to be beautiful in many paintings, making the genders hard to depict. Young males and females were often linked to the object of desire. The appearance of young beardless men were called mukhannas.[1] It was not until the 19th century when females were exhibited as more individualized with distinct feminine facial and body features exaggerating which ultimately led to the disappearance of the mukhanna, the male object of desire.[2] 19th century Qajar art also brought the emergence of the bare breasted woman. This displayed the bare breast seen through a dress for fetishistic pleasure and becomes a major theme in Qajar paintings. These bare breasted women were portrayed as angels, European women, women of pleasure such as acrobats or musicians. Some paintings include a portrayal of Mary and baby Jesus. Eventually, the bare breast led to an indication of womanhood.[3]
In addition to the depiction of women is how the posture and positions women were placed in these paintings which helps tell a story. Women were often holding objects such as mirrors, fruit, or wine to represent beauty and pleasure. These representations go in hand with Persian poetry.[4] With Persian literature in mind, women often had an "outward gaze" which represents "directly addressing the reader" [5] and is seen in many narrative paintings from Shirin and Khusraw, Yusuf and Zulaykha, and Shaykh San'an. In contrast to traditional postures and positions of women in 19th century Qajar art, was a common female representation of women upside down on their hands gracefully on a knife. This was often interpreted as rejection to social order which is often represented in folk narratives in both pictorial and literary representations to dismiss the stereotype of passive Iranian women.[6]
- ^ Najmabadi, Afsaneh (2005). Women with Mustaches and Men without Beards: Gender and Sexual Anxieties of Iran Modernity. University of California Press. p. 16.
- ^ Najmabadi, Afsaneh (2005). Women with Mustaches and Men without Beards: Gender and Sexual Anxieties of Iran Modernity. University of California Press. p. 26.
- ^ Najmabadi, Afsaneh (2005). Women with Mustaches and Men without Beards: Gender and Sexual Anxieties of Iran Modernity. University of California Press. p. 39.
- ^ Vanzan, Anna (2014). "The Popularization of Art in Late Qajar Iran: The Importance of Class and Gender". Quaderni Asiatici: 146.
- ^ Najmabadi, Afsaneh (2005). Women with Mustaches and Men without Beards: Gender and Sexual Anxieties of Iran Modernity. University of California Press. p. 30.
- ^ Vanzan, Anna (2014). "The Popularization of Art in Late Qajar Iran: The Importance of Class and Gender". Quaderni Asiatici: 150.