“Narrative Duration Analysis in Ilkhanid painting” (Case Study: Painting of the Prophet Armia (Jeremiah/Uzair) and the Revival of the Dead from the Jame-Al-Tavarikh Book)


Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 26 August 2026

Document Type : Original Research Article

Authors

1 Assistant Professor of Islamic Arts, Department of Industrial Arts, Faculty of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism, University of Mazandaran, Iran.

2 Professor, Faculty of Fine Arts, Atatürk University, Erzurum, Türkiye.

Abstract
The advent of Ilkhanate created development in bibliographical span in the Iranian governance field. As the governing cultural discourses, the religious tolerance and historic tendency have prepared the needed ground for emerging of paintings under religious subjects. One of the works, which has been formed at this cultural texture, is the portrait of ‘Jeremiah Prophet and Revival of the Dead’, was one of the paintings in Book of Jame-Al-Tavarikh for its creation the painter has manipulated the time chronologically by means of various techniques. Thus, in this study we intend to analyze way of controlling of linear time by the painter of the painting using time analysis to represent the story based on ‘Theory of Narrative Discourse/Duration’ of Gerard Genette to determine how to distinguish between time of story and the passed time in this work and how the artist could convey theme of the story to the audience using chronological manipulation. It has aimed to read chronological manipulation conducted by the artist and analyze the relationship of effective elements in this process. The findings derived by descriptive-analytical method may show that the time signs extracted in painting, in addition to recreating the story, represent supplementary elements introduced by the illustrator that, acting as a mediator for entering the story and conveying its theme, create distinctions between the time of the story and the time of the narration. The painter, by pictorially describing minor elements absent from the story, influenced by Turco-Mughal culture and religious tolerance, has been able to enhance the narrative duration of the painting by pausing the story's time. That is, he has depicted time as he wished and directed the viewer's gaze to see which part of the story in order to better understand the final theme.

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