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Iranian Revolutionary Painting on Canvas: Iconographic Study on the Martyred Body

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Alice Bombardier*
Affiliation:
EHESS, University of Geneva

Abstract

The figure of the martyred soldier is so ingrained in the Iranian public sphere that today, thirty years after the Revolution and twenty years after the cessation of the hostilities against Iraq, Iranian revolutionary painting on canvas keeps drawing most of its inspiration from the Shiite rhetoric of the martyred body and from the war. this article identifies and analyzes the iconographic forms of the martyred body in this pictorial production, which expresses primarily the concerns of the state. Relying on six works on canvas – painted before, during and thirty years after the Revolution – a scalable approach to the various representations of the martyred body is proposed, referring to Iran's history.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 2013 The International Society for Iranian Studies

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