User:LouisAragon/sandbox/Qajar lacquer

https://www.jstor.org/stable/1602286?searchText=au%3A%22B.+W.+Robinson%22&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3Fsi%3D1%26Query%3Dau%253A%2522B.%2BW.%2BRobinson%2522%26so%3Drel&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_phrase_search%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3Aecf94f61f503f87db9fbc8cbc7d6443e&seq=1

Qajar lacquer is the style of Iranian lacquer that was produced during the Qajar era.

Background
The first extant pieces of Iranian lacquer date back to the 15th century and can be found in the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul. These 15th-century pieces consitute a handful of bookcovers.

Artists
The most famous artists under Fath-Ali Shah who created lacquer works were his court artists Mirza Baba, Mihr 'Ali and Sayyid Mirza. Following Fath-Ali Shah's death in 1834, the center of lacquer work moves increasingly to Isfahan, where the career of Najaf (or Najaf Ali) starts to kick off. Najaf Ali descended from family of Isfahani painters. He and his family dominated Qajar lacquer painting during the next 50 years. The careers of his renowned younger brother Muhammad Ismail and three sons (Muhammad Kazim, Ja'far, and Ahmad) flourished into the 1880s. Isfahan's governor Manouchehr Khan appears to have patronized Najaf Ali and his family to some extent. Najaf Ali created the standard of meticulous finish and warm color schemes, which distinguishes his lacquer works from that of his brother and sons. The subjects of Najaf Ali and his contemporaries as well as his successors were largley inspired by European-made pictures and prints. The quantities of these were coming into Iran en masse at this time, but they were often not of the "best quality of taste" according to Robinson. The theme of the Holy Family often appears in the lacquerworks of Najaf Ali and his followers, but they bear no religious significance. This is examplified by such works include busts of European coquettes, interspersed with heads of young European military officers or dandies in smoking caps, framed in gold scrollwork or flowers.

Muhammad Ismail, Najaf's younger brother, was probably the most gifted and original member of the family. He received the title of naqqash-bashi or "painter laureate" to the prince-governor of Isfahan. A self-portrait of Muhammad Ismail is found in the interior of a 1866 penbox which is currently held in a private collection. Muhammad Ismail's ouevre differs from that of his older brother Najaf Ali and his compositions mostly depict numerous tiny figures often dressed in European costume, which gained him the nickname farangi-saz ("the Europeanizer"). A characteristic example of such works by Muhammad Ismail is one of his mirror cases dated to 1854. Each surface of the case is split into three scenes, including the young crown prince Naser al-Din Mirza (later ruling as Naser al-Din Shah Qajar) sitting on Tsar Nicholas I's lap. Another scene depicts Ottoman Sultan Abdul Mejid

An even more spectacular Qajar lacquer is a casket dated 1865 and stored in the Historal Museum at Bern, Switzerland. It illustrates the siege of Herat by Mohammad Shah Qajar. In one or two of his later works, Najaf Ali actually imitated the style of his younger brother.

Another important 19th-century family of lacquer artists at Isfahan was the Imami. Their works show less originality than Najaf and his circle, however, their work is equally fine in terms of quality. They generally focused on variations on the bird-and-flower theme. Nasrallah Imami was highly adept in this kind of work, and hazelnuts are often prominent in his designs. Reza Imami was commissioned to create a magnificent mirror case for the Paris exposition of 1867, where it was acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum. Later on, the Imami family appears to have created a large number of pieces in the Safavid style, sometimes provided with circumstantial inscriptions and dates in the reign of Shah Abbas. Such works have deceived Western collectors and even museums. The Imami family supplied finely painted but anachronistic and irrelevant miniatures to fill up blank spaces or to even cover parts of the text in earlier manuscripts.

At the same time, large quantities of fine lacquer was also being produced at Shiraz, where Aqa Buzurg was the leading lacquer artist in the mid-19th century. He is considered to be a talented portraitist as can be seen on a penbox, dated 1853, and stored in the Museum of Decorative Arts in Tehran. The work was probably conceived by Firuz Mirza, the prince-governor, as the penbox is covered with lively portraits of his ministers and courtiers. A self-portrait of Aqa Buzurg can be found on one of the ends of this penbox. In the last quarter of the 19th century, the foremost Shirazi painter was Fathallah, known for his ecxquisitely painted penboxes featuring the traditional Iranian bird-and-flower design is considerably Europeanized and combined with delicate figure subjects in panels.

ain amount has been said on the subject of designs and motives found on penboxes, but one or tw ' ..... K' special types are worth mentioning here. Firstly, th ^ ri i is a certain technique akin to marbling, which produc a curious effect of fat oily leaf-shaped forms; it seems t the second quarter and Abu Talib in the third quarte of the nineteenth century. These "fat leaf' designs are often combined with another technical novelty produc- ing an effect not unlike engine-turning on a silver watchcase or snuffbox. The secret of these technique .w ....seems to have died with Abu Talib.18 Then there is group of penboxes of late-nineteenth or early- twentieth-century date and very high quality, painted inside and out with narrative scenes illustrating the suc-, cessive stages of a wedding, from the first tentative h approaches of the go-between to the final consumma . tion. 9 CAbd al-Rahim of Isfahan was a specialist in th genre, and his works were no doubt in great deman for wedding gifts. Landscapes are found not infre- quently on penboxes. Pure landscape has never had a place in the repertory of Persian painting, and thes .... ~ examples, like so many of the figure subjects, are European-often Russian-derivation, with their [useum of De- castles, bridges, and church spires
 * : have been practiced by two artists only, Rajab CAli in

Mirrorboxes
One or two special types worth mentioning. Firstly, there is a technique similar to marbling, which produces a curious effect of fat oily lead-shaped forms. This particular technique was seemingly practised by only two artists only, Rajab Ali in the second quarter and Abu Talib in the third quarter of the 19th century. Such "fat leaf" designs are often combined with another technical novelty producing an effect not unlike engine-turning on a silver watchcase or snuffbox. The know-how of these techniques seems to have died with Abu Talib. Then there is a group of penboxes of late-19th or early 20th-century date and of very high quality, which were painted inside and out with narrative scenes illustrating the successive stages of a wedding, from the first tentative approaches of the go-between to the final consummation. Abd al-Rahim of Isfahan was a specialist of this genre, and his works were doubtlessly in great demand for wedding gifts. Landscapes are not found infrequently on penboxes, however, pure landscape has never had a spot in the reportory of Iranian painting regardless of time period. Such examples, as with many of the figure objects, are of European (often Russian) deriviation with their castles, bridges and church spires.

Another remarkable small group of penboxes illustrates the Last Judgment. The French traveler Hommaire de Hell was in Persia between 1846 and 1848, and whilst at Tabriz was visited by "the m ive Western celebrated painter of Persia, deaf and dumb for ley also sup- years," who brought for his inspection an unfi id irrelevant penbox of which Hommaire de Hell gives a full o cover parts tion, though without mentioning the artist's n The top and one of the sides were completed, being pro- former showing the weighing of souls by the Ar n the middle Michael in the middle, on the left the gaping m name which hell with demons and serpents gleefully tormen talented por- damned amid flames, and on the right, Paradise Museum of the blessed are enjoying the sensual delights pr obably com- in the Quran; the latter illustrates a Napoleonic rnor, as it is scene (fig. 16a). Evidently the painter died be rs and cour- completing his work, and some twenty years later ait on one of taken over by Ismacil Jalayr, who added anothe )rk to 1853. scene (fig. 16b) and a finely executed desig century the inscription on the base (fig. 16c). This Ismacil ho produced well-known painter of the 1860's, though not ot e traditional known as a lacquer artist, and a great favorite erably Euro- shah; but he later lost his reason and committed

Bookcovers
The finest early Qajar bookcovers are probably those ordered by Fath-Ali Shah Qajar for the great Nizami Ganjavi manuscript of Safavid Shah Tahmasp I, at the time one of the treasures of the royal library. The work was probably done c. 1830, and split between Sayyid Mirza and Muhammad Baqir. These two painters were responsible for creating one cover each. Both covers depict Fath-Ali Shah Qajar hunting in the guise of the Sasanian King of Kings Bahram Gur. Although both covers have suffered some damage, they remain the masterpieces of lacquer painting of Fath-Ali Shah's reign.