This 18th-century painting commemorates an historic fencing match between two French knights: one an illegitimate Black nobleman and the other a gender nonconforming spy.
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This important painting of a Black Haitian deputy, once enslaved, commemorates his participation in the assembly that abolished slavery in France in 1794. He wears the tricolored uniform of a deputy of the French National Convention and only his gold earring speaks to his Colonial ties.
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This dignified portrait by Diego Velázquez depicts his enslaved Black assistant, Juan de Pareja, who was a skilled artist in his own right.
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This 18th-century grand manner portrait of two cousins juxtaposes fashionable turquerie with luxurious but conventional children’s clothing.
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Guipure lace is a type of continuous bobbin lace made without a mesh ground; its motifs are connected by bridges or plaits.
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This painting of two 18th-century gentlewomen features fashionable trends in portraiture and clothing, including Orientalism, pastoralism, and masculine-inspired dress.
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Diego Bemba’s 1643 portrait, along with those of Pedro Sunda and Miguel de Castro, represents an early example of cultural exchange in which African ambassadors donning European costume in order to project a carefully curated image of cultural capital.
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The young man in this portrait, dressed in formal French aristocratic style, represents the final flourish (or last gasp?) of the ancien régime in the last years before the French Revolution.
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1952 – Christian Dior, La Cigale
1882 – John Singer Sargent, El Jaleo
1856 – Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Madame Moitessier
chantilly lace
1788 – Jacques Louis David, Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier and Marie-Anne Lavoisier