ID :
156586
Mon, 01/10/2011 - 15:20
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Shortlink :
https://www.oananews.org//node/156586
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Construction of Persian poet "Khayyam" statues for Tehran and Florence enters final stage
TEHRAN, Jan. 10 (MNA) -- Making a pair of Khayyam(Persian polymath) statues, one of which is scheduled to be installed in Tehran and the other in the Italian city of Florence, will soon be completed.
The Iranian sculptor Hossein Fakhimi began making the statues in 2000 with sponsorship from the Iranian Embassy in Rome.
However, the Tehran Municipality is currently financing the project on the statues of the Iranian poet, mathematician and astronomer.
“I had to become familiar with Khayyam before I began making the statues,” Fakhimi said.
“So I spent six months studying in libraries and talking with experts on Khayyam,” he added.
Consequently, Fakhimi became convinced that it would be best to make the sculptures from perfect white stone due to the natural capacity of this type of stone for depicting details in the sculpture.
He made trips to Italy, Greece, Macedonia, Thailand, China and Afghanistan, visiting many quarries in order to find his favorite stone for the statues.
Finally, he found his favorite stones in Iran at the Azna stone quarry in Lorestan Province.
Fakhimi said that he had no preconceived picture of Khayyam for the statues. He reached a design based on his studies from available resources in libraries.
“I have imagined a thoughtful face for Khayyam,” he said.
“Under his hand, I have placed a horoscope, which symbolizes astronomy. I have also engraved Pascal’s theorem and others on steles attached to the statues. I have also created a form of an astrolabe, which represents his skill in mathematics,” he explained.
Each statue is placed on a surface, which has been designed as a carpet to represent Iranian culture. Motifs dating from the period in which Khayyam lived and the Safavid era have been etched as pattern on the surface.
The following quatrain from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam has been engraved in Persian, English and Italian on the bases of the statues:
The heavenly spheres which in this domain reside,
Have bewildered the wise, thinking far and wide;
Behold and don’t lose the trail of wisdom,
For the price of wisdom is to reel to every side.
“The quatrain represents Khayyam’s way of thinking, his knowledge of astronomy and his great wisdom,” Fakhimi stated.
Special music has been composed for performance during the unveiling ceremony of the statues. However, no specific time for the unveiling ceremony was mentioned.
A Khayyam statue, which was created by prominent Iranian sculptor Abolhassan Seddiqi in 1972 in Italy, was later installed at Tehran’s Laleh Park.
A bust of Khayyam, created by Iranian artist Alireza Qadamyari, is on display at the Khayyam Museum at his tomb in Neyshabur.
Omar Khayyam (c. 1050-1122), author of the Rubaiyat, one of the world’s best-known anthologies of poetry, was introduced to the West in 1859 by the English poet and translator Edward FitzGerald through a version of 100 of Khayyam’s quatrains.
The Iranian sculptor Hossein Fakhimi began making the statues in 2000 with sponsorship from the Iranian Embassy in Rome.
However, the Tehran Municipality is currently financing the project on the statues of the Iranian poet, mathematician and astronomer.
“I had to become familiar with Khayyam before I began making the statues,” Fakhimi said.
“So I spent six months studying in libraries and talking with experts on Khayyam,” he added.
Consequently, Fakhimi became convinced that it would be best to make the sculptures from perfect white stone due to the natural capacity of this type of stone for depicting details in the sculpture.
He made trips to Italy, Greece, Macedonia, Thailand, China and Afghanistan, visiting many quarries in order to find his favorite stone for the statues.
Finally, he found his favorite stones in Iran at the Azna stone quarry in Lorestan Province.
Fakhimi said that he had no preconceived picture of Khayyam for the statues. He reached a design based on his studies from available resources in libraries.
“I have imagined a thoughtful face for Khayyam,” he said.
“Under his hand, I have placed a horoscope, which symbolizes astronomy. I have also engraved Pascal’s theorem and others on steles attached to the statues. I have also created a form of an astrolabe, which represents his skill in mathematics,” he explained.
Each statue is placed on a surface, which has been designed as a carpet to represent Iranian culture. Motifs dating from the period in which Khayyam lived and the Safavid era have been etched as pattern on the surface.
The following quatrain from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam has been engraved in Persian, English and Italian on the bases of the statues:
The heavenly spheres which in this domain reside,
Have bewildered the wise, thinking far and wide;
Behold and don’t lose the trail of wisdom,
For the price of wisdom is to reel to every side.
“The quatrain represents Khayyam’s way of thinking, his knowledge of astronomy and his great wisdom,” Fakhimi stated.
Special music has been composed for performance during the unveiling ceremony of the statues. However, no specific time for the unveiling ceremony was mentioned.
A Khayyam statue, which was created by prominent Iranian sculptor Abolhassan Seddiqi in 1972 in Italy, was later installed at Tehran’s Laleh Park.
A bust of Khayyam, created by Iranian artist Alireza Qadamyari, is on display at the Khayyam Museum at his tomb in Neyshabur.
Omar Khayyam (c. 1050-1122), author of the Rubaiyat, one of the world’s best-known anthologies of poetry, was introduced to the West in 1859 by the English poet and translator Edward FitzGerald through a version of 100 of Khayyam’s quatrains.
