The study of Ceramics Known as “House Model” in Medieval Islamic Iranian Art Using The Iconography Method

Among the historical objects of Iran in the medieval Islamic period, there are unknown objects in terms of their function and reasons of construction, which were called “model houses” by Western archaeologists based on their appearance. Although in the last decade, efforts have been made by researchers and antiquities experts in the prestigious museums of the world to find out the essence of these objects, but so far no convincing and logical proposition has been presented in this regard. The most important goal of this research is to collect and classify the available examples of these objects, because in previous researches and writings about the art of Iran in the middle centuries, these objects have always been mentioned as a secondary and less important topic in the Seljuk period pottery and they have not been specifically studied. Irwin Panofsky’s iconography method can be considered as a logical and useful method according to its capabilities in understanding visual works, which in the form of a coherent system on three levels, has made it possible to approach the understanding of the work of art. at the first, this article seeks to find out whether Erwin Panofsky’s method in art historiography studies can be used in the reading of these works. And secondly, is it possible to find a way to understand the meaning of these objects by using it? For this purpose, by using the analytical descriptive method based on Panofsky’s theory and collecting data from prestigious museums and collections, an attempt was made to come closer to understanding these objects by presenting a coherent and organized classification. The result of this research shows that Panofsky’s method can be useful in studying the visual aspects of these works in the pre-iconography stage due to its codified structure and in the stage of iconography, it seems to be effective in knowing the objective concepts and their expressive meanings because the said objects have narrative characteristics.