Keyumarth Court A Comparative Study of Visual Symbols of Seven Paintings in one Subject

Keyumarth is the first legendary king whose mythic story was written in Shahname by Ferdowsi. In Avestan language, Keyumarth has been written gayyumaretan (having mortal life) and in some other texts, it is found as gyumarth, gymard, kehumarth and keyumarz. The creation of empire and social life began with Keyumarth story in Shahname. According to this story, the beginning of empire is accompanied with resurrection of nature and an overall spread of safety and calmness is accompanied by his arrival. Many paintings in the painting history of Iran have been devoted to this issue which indicates the beauty and simplicity of this story. A comparative survey of seven paintings on this subject in different schools of painting in Iran is the aim of the present study. Due to the diversity of visual characteristics of these schools, one sample from each period has been selected as special motifs and colors of every school of painting have overshadowed the main theme of the story. The artists’ level of loyalty to the story text in seven paintings is different. In all these paintings, keyumarth and courtiers were located in nature (as common points of paintings) and colors and dressing of individuals are very diverse (as differing points of paintings). This is a descriptive-analytical study and the data have been collected from library sources.