Painting the Rubáiyat of Omar Khayyám in a New Light

The Thomas Y. Crowell edition of The Rhubáiyát of Omar Khayyám is not an edition that is subversive or remastered, but instead is a beautiful piece of print that embraces the aesthetics and value of its predecessors. A book with a simple yet effective binding, this harcover edition employs the use of a soft green buckram. It is a mellow background to the intricate embossment on both the front cover and along the spine, futher contrasted by the gilding it sports. The image is of a peacock erupting from a stylised vase, surrounded by flowering plants in a laurel-esque circle…

In Barbara Black's On Exhibit, she breaks down the surge of popularity that FitzGerald's translation experienced, as well as the techniques that were used to promote it and their inherently orientalist nature. Much of the visualization used in the publishing, she argued, was meant to shallowly imitate a "Persian" style with strong usage of ornaments and rich and fancy iconography. In doing so, Black states that the text was diminished to its often elaborate design, gaining notoriety through that rather than its actual contents, as seen in the line, "Susceptible to a miniaturizing…

One of the most interesting examples of Pogány's mastery in illustration can be seen in stanzas 31and 32, although we shall focus on 31 alone for the sake of brevity. Following the theme of the rest of the Rubáiyát , this stanza is a quatrain that follows the rhyme scheme of AABA, linked together with the end rhymes 'gate, sate, and fate.' It breaks from the theme of indulgence, but is a great example Khayyám's repeated philosophy of a form of existentialism. There are two forms of imagery that can be assumed to exhibit a certain meaning, with the Road relating to Life's…

For this specific edition, there is an unusual scenario where the illustrator, Willy Pogány, has illustrated multiple works of the Rubáiyát, one of which is within another piece of this exhibition. Pogány is a relatively well known illustrator of his time, an artist of Hungarian descent who was well known for his art noveau style. Born in 1882, the Hungarian boy who would later become William Andrew Pogány, Vilmos Feichtmann, originally studied in Budapest for engineering, but swapped over to art studies within the first year. This took him to London, and later America, where…

My dearest friend,

It has been a long time since I have seen you, and I wish that the day we reunite would come sooner. Times have been hard for me over here in the north, although I'm sure you are aware with how the country is struggling overall. However, I have lately come across some spare change, and while I was in the bookstore I had written about in past letters, I found this book and thought of you and our studies together. And maybe a little of the way that you talk. I know you have your own small collection of editions, but I wanted to add to that so you will…