Wood carving Iran in the Qajar era
The Qajar era coincides with the coming to power of Mr. Mohammad Khan. It is during this period that some Iranian arts take on the color and smell of Western art, including the art of woodcarving. The carvings of this period no longer flourished and were severely degraded in terms of design and technique. As mentioned before, the widespread presence of paint and painting on wooden works was one of the reasons for this decline. Engravers of this period were less likely to look for lasting works and were more likely to make small functional items such as chests, jewelry boxes, tables and chairs, frames, and the like.
Usually, in this period, inlaying was done in two methods, Persian with high depth and traditional with low depth, and to some extent following the style of Qadma. In order to make it easier to perform inlaid works, the woodcarvers of this era found a wide inclination towards inlaid latticework, because in this method, the background of the role was completely separated from the work with tools such as chainsaw, tip saw and razor and no need to dig anymore. And there was no payment; Examples of this method that have been made and paid for include the doors of the windbreak mansion in Golestan Palace.
Of course, it should not be forgotten that some of the wooden arts flourished during this period, including the art of embroidery, cloth weaving, latticework, carving, sashing, and lacquer painting. However, in the corners of Iran, you can see inlaid works that have elegance. Here are some of them:
At the top of the entrance to the tomb of Sultan Mahmud Shah Dinuri in the village of Mill Lorzan (Khatbehsara) in Gilan, there is a wooden chain that seems to be made of Kish wood (boxwood) and according to Mr. Sotoudeh, its length is about three meters. Its construction date is unknown. Usually, making wooden chains from an integrated wood is a precise and measured work that requires the precision, patience, skill and taste of the constructive artist. Other valuable artifacts in the tomb include the wooden chandelier, which is 11 centimeters long on each side. This lamp is also made in a special way and method in such a way that without having any additional pieces on all four sides, it has round holes where the wooden ball is carved from the same wood inside it and it has become spherical. After all, the tomb has columns and decorated capitals with spiral, broken, wicker and circular motifs, and the interiors can well illustrate these beauties.
Another work of the middle Qajar period is the entrance of the tomb of Seyyed Abbas and Seyyed Ismail in the Saghri Sazan neighborhood of Rasht city, which seems to be made of free wood and its height reaches about 186 cm. On the Ba’athist verses of the verse and the inscription “Abdullah ibn Muhammad, the believer of the table of Ali ibn Musa 1243” can be seen. These inscriptions have been written and engraved with a beautiful and larger line than other motifs, no paving has been done on them and the passages of this have been engraved in a combination of Khatai motifs with poems in Nasta’liq script. There are also very delicate motifs on the trunks, which also have no pavement. The main lines and outlines of the outline are simply engraved, and since no paving has been done on them, the work can be likened to and compared to pen-and-ink formats, as it is very skillfully carved and polished. .
The two carved inlays belonging to the late Qajar period, ie the fourteenth century AH, the work of Professor Abbas Ali … are kept in the Cultural Heritage Office of Tehran Province. The revolving heel door is decorated with inscriptions from Quranic verses on the Ba’athists and Pasars, and not-so-quiet, Islamic and Khatai motifs on the donkeys. It is decorated with a special elegance of that era and has a woven margin. The workmanship of this work is excellent and it has ordinary pavements; On the Baoists, at certain distances, the role of the Khatai flower is seen with proper paving and polishing; On the embossed and embossed parts, a green liner is used to decorate and embellish the designs, which has added to the beauty of the work in terms of appearance.
Other valuable wooden works of the Qajar era are wooden spoons that have been made and polished with great elegance in areas of Iran such as Abadeh, and very small Islamic and Khatai motifs with beautiful lines have been engraved on such works that were performed by inlaid lattice method. The thickness of such spoons is sometimes so high that light can easily pass through them and their maximum thickness does not exceed 2.5 mm; The height of these spoons has sometimes reached 60 cm and it easily accommodates a glass of liquid in its hollow part. Henry René Dalmani, who traveled to Iran during the Qajar period, writes about Iran’s woodwork:
“Carpentry works are generally carried out in large and wooden cities that are provided from Mazandaran with forest areas around Isfahan. It can be said that the construction center is the best carpentry work, especially inlaying and finishing in Isfahan. ” (Dalmani, 1999, p. 534). Elsewhere, he adds: “In Sardar Asad Bakhtiari’s palace in Janqan, doors and windows have been used, in which copper and tin have been used. These doors and windows are so beautiful and wonderful in terms of makeup, elegance, flowers and deceptive plants that the only crumb that can be taken from their builders is why they have worked so hard to decorate and exaggerate these doors. . ”
There is an inlaid wooden door on the tomb of Aqa Seyyed Hossein and Aqa Seyyed Ibrahim in Langrud, which was built in 1272 AH. Inscriptions have been engraved on the passages and baoes, the role of which is copied from another old door, which was built around 1165 AD, seventy years earlier, and installed on the tomb.
Following the spread and progress of traditional arts, we are witnessing the establishment of schools that form the basis for the revival of art in Iran. In fact, the origins of the emerging industries come from the fact that Mirza Taghi Khan Amirkabir traveled to Russia with a delegation in 1205 and visited scientific and technical institutes there, which made Mirza Taghikhan think of creating a center for teaching science and technology. .
In 1228, he started the plan to establish the Dar al-Fonun school with the cooperation and design of Mirza Reza Mohandes Bashi and the implementation of Mohammad Taghikhan Memarbashi, and it was opened in 1230 AH. Initially, medicine, mathematics, system, and foreign languages were taught there, but later Persian and Arabic pre-classes were added.
Its first chairman was Mirza Mohammad Ali Ali Khan Shirazi, Minister of Foreign Affairs. In 1289, after Kamal-ol-Molk’s study trips to Europe, the Mustazarfeh School of Industry was established with the intention of improving and promoting Iranian painting. The establishment of this school, which was an incomplete adaptation of the Western system, led to the continuation and establishment of such centers in Iran. Here, however, it is necessary to mention, however, a picture of some of the works of the late Qajar government in the Museum of Decorative Arts in Isfahan and some historical monuments.
