Problem Statement: Zil-i-Soltan vase carpets, among the most distinctive carpet designs of the Qajar period, possess considerable structural and visual capacities for aesthetic analysis in addition to their decorative value. Despite the significance of these works, the manner in which defamiliarization is realized in their visual structure has rarely been examined through Viktor Shklovsky’s formalist theory.
Research Objective: Accordingly, the present study aims to reread Zil-i-Soltan carpets from a formalist perspective and to systematically analyze the disruption of the familiar repeat-pattern system. It seeks to answer the following question: how are the visual techniques of defamiliarization manifested in the visual structure and composition of the Zil-i-Soltan carpets preserved in the Carpet Museum of Iran?
Research Methodology: This research adopts a qualitative approach and a descriptive-analytical method. Its data were collected through library research and the purposive analysis of two selected Zil-i-Soltan carpets from the Carpet Museum of Iran. The analysis is based on the concepts of disruption of automatic perception, retardation of perception, and estrangement of form, with particular emphasis on components such as the spatial displacement of elements, the functional transformation of parts, the disturbance of repeat-pattern structures, and the combination of motifs and visual ornaments.
Results: The findings indicate that defamiliarization in these carpets is achieved not through a rupture with tradition, but through the creative reconfiguration of the familiar Zil-i-Soltan vase structure, the transformation of repetitive rhythm, the alteration of compositional centrality, the omission and substitution of repeat units, and the juxtaposition of human, animal, vegetal, and architectural motifs. These interventions delay the viewer’s automatic perception.