Historical and Technical Investigation of Canvas-Marouflaged Murals in Iranian Churches

There are specific forms of mural paintings in some Iranian Churches that are different from other usual wall paintings in materials, methods as well as Implementation techniques. Unfortunately, these mural paintings are not studied certainly until now. The aim of this research is the identification of history of development, and used materials and techniques in these historic paintings by field and literature investigation. Regarding limited literature in this field (especially in Persian language), the first stage of this study has focused on European Canvas-Marouflaged Murals and in the second stage, Canvas-Marouflaged Murals of Vank Cathedral, Mary Church in Isfahan and Mary Church in Tabriz are investigated. The research subject and case studies are studied in a qualitative and descriptive research method and the subject is considered with two historical and theorical aspects. According to the literature, some technical changes were occurred in operation process of large wall paintings and ceiling paintings at the Renaissance period that finally led to a new and different type of wall painting that is noticed as Marouflage in this paper. These paintings are executed on the layer of cloth (canvas) and then installed on the wall that is known as a part of the architecture arrays. In this paper, the process of formation of this type of wall painting in Europe was studied and present examples of this method in Iranian Churches are introduced and explained.

Keywords: Canvas-Marouflaged Mural; Painting; Historical Monuments; Iranian Churches.