The Influence of the Seven Principles of Persian Painting on the Compositional Structure of Kamal al-Din Behzad’s Works

Abstract

Composition is a fundamental principle in visual artworks that makes it possible to unify the different components of a work within a variety of formats. The principal objective of this study is to examine the visual rules governing design in the Herat School of Persian painting and to investigate how these rules influenced the compositional structure of Kamal al-Din Behzad’s works. To this end, one of Behzad’s most renowned works, entitled A Beggar at the Door of the Mosque, was examined using a descriptive-analytical method and library-based documentary sources. The findings indicate that the traditional method of teaching Persian painting in the Herat School was, in practical terms, founded on seven principles that collectively determined the compositional structure of works produced during this period. Accordingly, the examination of the selected work—as a representative example sharing numerous characteristics with Behzad’s other works—demonstrates that although Behzad adhered to the guiding principles of composition derived from the visual rules governing design in Persian painting, he also introduced a general compositional rule according to which simple geometric and quasi-geometric configurations, particularly circles and ellipses, direct the postures and positions of figures and objects. This feature can largely be attributed to the predominance of a vertical viewpoint in Behzad’s works.