Studying the developments of sculpture in Qajar era; from the stone reliefs to the Mojassameye Homayouni (Statue of “Royal Majesty”)

Inscriptions in calligraphy, hard stone carving and rock reliefs have a long tradition in Iranian Art. Although from the pre-Islamic times many important samples of three dimensional Sculptures have been found in Iran, during the Islamic era, because of the religious edicts and beliefs, that they had the sculpting prohibited, the art of sculpture couldn’t be developed in the way of pre-Islamic style. Nevertheless Iranian’s tendency to this kind of art appeared in the different artistic forms, such as decorative reliefs in architectures, monumental buildings, tombs, mausoleums and different types of carving of vessels. But during the Qajars some efforts were made in order to revive the royal rock reliefs. Therefore many artworks were made in this time show the durability and endurance of the Iranian old traditions and styles of sculpture and rock relief. Also in the second half of the Qajar dynasty the realistic and three dimensional sculptures became the center of attention, so that the first realistic sculpture in the round was made in the Islamic times. This event, as itself, was the first step of the next artistic developments in the field of sculpture. In fact, cultural, political, and social changes in 19th century in Iran can be considered as the last stage of the traditional developments in Iran’s society. In the first section of the Qajar dynasty, in the other word, during the reign of Fath-Ali Shah (1797- 1834) many efforts were taken in the royal court, especially because of the demand of Shah himself, in order to revive the Iranian old traditions in the fields of literature and art. With beginning of reign of Nasser al-Din Shah (1848) commenced a new period of time in Iran’s history. It was the time to distance from the social and cultural traditions and tend to western developments. In the field of sculpture the naturalistic and three dimensional and also monumental sculptures came to core, so that the art of sculpting became an artistic activity in relationship with the new urban design. Beside a brief review of the history of sculpture in Iran, this article, based on the pictorial and written resources, studies the different approaches of sculpture and stone carving during the time of Qajars. One of the main issues that will be studied in this article is the role of royal court in the process of the development of sculpture, from a traditional status to a realistic art style. Especially in this relationship the impact of Nasser al-Din Shah’s travels to Europe and his confrontation with realistic sculpture that led to making his royal statue will be considered. Other main issues in this study are the use of decorative application of sculpture in royal courts and also the use of imported sculptures as the educational samples to learn painting, drawing and sculpting in the first art schools in western style that paved the way to three dimensional sculptures and naturalistic painting in Iran.