Ali Esfarjani's collection of works

A collection of oil paintings by professor Ali Esfarjani

Ali Esfarjani's collection of leather miniatures and mosaics is an exquisite treasure of 18 oiled miniature paintings, which were donated by his family in November 2007 to the Negarestan Garden Museum collection of Tehran University. This collection is now in a hall named after him; exhibited in the collection. Pyrography and mosaic paintings are derived and evolved from the art of bookbinding; Pyrography is a delicate and old art that is used on the covers of exquisite and precious books, decorative panels and covers of the Quran.

Biography

Professor Ali Esfarjani - the outstanding artist and master of national and traditional arts of Iran was born in 1920, in Isfahan. His father, Asadollah Esfarjani, was a thoughtful and artistic man, and had a great taste for collecting, identifying and preserving old manuscripts, scrapbooks, and other works of art, and over time, he had provided himself with a spectacular and heavy collection of all kinds of artistic masterpieces. During his childhood, he used to go with his father to the famous teachers of Isfahan. For example, he spent a few days in the presence of Abbas Zolfonun Esfarjani, his artist uncle, who was a master in the field of pyrography and mosaic and learned the alphabet of leather art from him. Professor Ali Esfarjani left for Tehran with his family at the age of fourteen and in 1934 he entered the school of ancient crafts. With great enthusiasm, he learned the principles of miniature from design to color in the school of Professor Hadi Tajvidi, and at the same time, he learned the rules of gilding in Professor Ali Doroudi’s classes. He also benefited from the presence of professors such as Mohammad Ali Zaviyeh, Aboutaleb Moghimi, Ali Karimi, Abdollah Bagheri and Salim Aghili at the Kamal-ol-molk Conservatory. Professor Esfarjani completed the school studies with full success in the field of miniatures and gilding in 1939. The result of the work of those years are some beautiful miniatures with gilded edges, which have been preserved in the museums of Iran. After finishing the school of ancient crafts, according to the experience and skills he had, he worked on the design of government stamps and labels along with his brother at the parliament’s printing house for seven years. Then by importing the printing and engraving machine with the help of his brother, he also engaged in printing in addition to art. In 1961, he officially entered the field of pyrography and mosaic and made his first painting in these years.

The art of pyrography and mosaic on leather

The pyrography and mosaic paintings are derived and evolved from the art of bookbinding. Throughout history, many book covers have been made through leather pyrography. Pyrography is a delicate and old art that is used on the covers of exquisite and precious books, decorative panels and covers of the Quran. Between the extinction of the Safavid dynasty and the Qajar era, this art was forgotten. But during the Qajar era, with the introduction of printing tools, the necessary grounds for the development of this technology and art were provided. The term "Pyrography" has been proposed in two ways. First: the use of burnt colors, i.e. opaque and baked colors in the art of leather pyrography, which is one of the main principles of the art of leather pyrography. Second: due to the creation of embossed patterns on Timaj leather pieces, which is done by two methods of hammering and heated tools. In the hammering method, a mold with defined patterns is heated on the fire and the leather is placed between the molds, and the patterns of the molds are transferred to the leather with the pressure of the hammers beating. In this method, the leather becomes garlic brown or black, and for this reason, this art is called "burnt".

Professor Esfarjani's method

There are two ways to perform the art of pyrography and mosaic:

- Using heated leather

- Using burnt leather (dark)

Professor Esfarjani's paintings are executed using burnt leather and leather mosaic, and the description of the execution is as follows: the artist first draws the desired design and pattern in the desired size and dimensions (large and small) on the paper. Designs are often based on Iranian classic poems and literature or religious stories and traditions and are written on paper. Then, the paper design is glued on the canvas or the main background of the painting, which is made of monolithic and healthy (without pores) skin (leather) in the same size. In the next step, the patterns are carefully separated one by one and part by part with a tool called a "pattern cutter" (a knife-shaped tool made of polished metal with a cutting edge) from the canvas or the background of the painting, which is actually two layers of skin and paper. For example, a design consists of different parts such as clothes, hats, trunks, stems, leaves, etc. The pattern of each of these should be removed from the canvas and then one by one their pattern should be placed on the painted leather and cut out of colored leather with the help of a pattern cutter with great precision and patience. For the green color of the tree leaves, the pattern separated from the background is placed on the green leather and is precisely cut with delicacy. The significant and important issue at this stage is that when cutting colored leathers, the master craftsman must accurately calculate how much these leathers will change size after being glued and become so-called elastic. This size change should be taken into account by the artist before cutting. Even if this very small difference is not taken into account by the artist at the time of cutting, when the colored leather pieces are placed next to each other and glued, a very narrow space remains between the empty and white leather pieces, which will be the main problem and the basis of the work. When the pieces of colored leather are cut in the form of various patterns, one by one, precisely and delicately, then it is time to glue these pieces correctly without any gaps in the empty space of the text or the background of the panel. This process is done using a glue with a combination of sorghum and grape juice or sorghum and starch. Now, it is time for processing, i.e., painting, patterning and penning on the leathers, which have formed a complete design next to each other on the canvas. It is at this stage that if the pyrography artist has mastered arts such as gilding and poetry, he alone will be able to finish the processing of the panel. Otherwise, other artists should help him finish his work.

The works of Professor Ali Esfarjani

Professor Esfarjani lived his life until the age of seventy-five with great passion for the art of pyrography, gilding and miniature. Until the end of his fruitful life, he created and illustrated more than 22 works in the field of pyrography and mosaic, four miniature works based on the poems of Hafez and Saadi. Professor Ali Esfarjani's works are mostly Based on mystical, literary and epic poems of the Iranian literary grandees. The works of this artist have been exhibited in various exhibitions including Iranian Art Festival in Dusseldorf, Germany in 1991, Saad Abad Palace Museum exhibition in 1992, contemporary museum exhibition in September 1993, and the exhibition of the National Art Museum of Iran in February 1993. After his death, the first exhibition of these works was opened to the public at the Moghaddam Museum of Tehran University, and then it was moved to Negarestan Garden so that it can be used by the public while maintaining and protecting it.