A Study the Rupture in Royal Portraiture of Qajar era based on Michel Foucault’s Theory of Power

Royal Portraiture is one of the last Iranian miniature styles which more or less can be considered a Synthesis Style of Iranian and European elements. This style was inspired by Westernization, but underwent important changes during the Qajar era. In this research, one tries to analyze and interpret one of its ruptures that occurred in the era of Mohammad Shah. The main issue of the present project is to study the ways this rupture and its consequences were occurred in Qajar visual culture. For this purpose, first, the main features of Royal Portraiture before and after the Fath-Ali Shah era were identified and then, the ways of the occurrence of this rupture were described. After that, based on Michel Foucault’s thoughts on the concept of the technique of power, the consequences of this rupture were examined. In this project, which was based on qualitative and analytical research method, after conducting studies, the result obtained from this study shows that the rupture of the Royal Portraiture was taken place in representation of body figure and in the discourse of chronology. The consequence was that, this rupture as a technique of power-record, in addition to reproducing this discourse, replaced metaphorical logic with realistic language in visual culture.