Amir Kabir, or Mirza Taqi Khan Farahani, was Nasir al-Din Shah’s first prime minister. A reformist, mentor, and father figure, Amir Kabir played an active role in creating Nasir al-Din Shah’s modern Qajar regime. He was later deposed, in part due to the influence of the shah’s mother, and then executed in a bathhouse by royal decree. Filizadeh’s depiction of Amir Kabir’s execution notably recalls the infamous Death of Marat by Jacques-Louis David, a portrait of the French Revolutionary figure Jean-Paul Marat stabbed to death in his bathtub while composing a final letter. Amir Kabir is depicted in a similar manner as a revolutionary martyr found dead in a bathtub with his pale, languid body falling over the edge as he bleeds out.
