A pair of images commemorates the bread riots that threatened Nasir al-Din Shah’s rule (see also M.2016.138.10).
This scene encapsulates a series of events. After the main encounter outside, a few women stormed the walls of the citadel, making their way into the shah’s presence. Nasir al-Din Shah stands victorious in the center atop a jeep mounted with an automatic weapon, a commanding presence with his red military cape symbolizing royal rage and bloodshed in his attempts to reassert power. He holds a sheet of Persian flatbread while around him women kneel in awe. Hanging above the scene from his foot is the bloodied sheriff, or Mayor Mahmud Khan Kalantur Nuri, who was tortured and whose beard was cut off as punishment before his execution.
