Essential Information

Type Talks and tours
Location
Online
Date and Times 22 October 2024 | 5:15pm
Prices Free
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Art historian Meredith Martin and historian Gillian Weiss discuss their co-authored book, The Sun King at Sea: Maritime Art and Galley Slavery in Louis XIV’s France (Getty Research Institute Publications, 2022).

The book focuses on the presence and depiction of enslaved Muslims who were captured or purchased to row French royal galleys during the reign of King Louis XIV (r. 1643–1715). 

Examining ship design, artillery sculpture, medals, paintings and prints, the book uncovers forced labour as a vital aspect of royal representation between France’s Mediterranean coast and its capital. The Sun King at Sea not only decentres the study of French art in this period but also challenges the assumption that human bondage had long vanished from continental France. 

Martin and Weiss will talk about their process of collaboration and the major insights gleaned from their book, and will also discuss a related exhibition they are currently organising with the historian M’hamed Oualdi for the Institut du monde arabe in Paris.

Event details

This event is free and open to everyone, and will take place via Zoom. There is no need to book; please click on the button below shortly before 5:15pm on the day.

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Main image: Charles Le Brun (French, 1619–90). The Reestablishment of Navigation, 1663, 1678–84, oil on canvas. Painted medallion for the Hall of Mirrors ceiling. Versailles, Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon, inv2921. ©RMN-Grand Palais / René-Gabriel Ojeda / Francl Raux / mounting Dominique Couto / Art Resource, NY.