Char tiré par quatre chevaux de front, Sur lequel étaient les Sultanes et les Eunuques, plate 30 from Caravanne du Sultan à la Mecque 1748

Joseph Marie Vien created this print, "Chariot Pulled by Four Horses Abreast, on Which Were the Sultan's Wives and the Eunuchs," as part of a series on the Sultan's caravan to Mecca. Vien, a painter to the French court, never visited the Ottoman Empire. This image comes from his imagination and the cultural context of 18th-century Europe. The print exoticizes the East, focusing on the spectacle of the Sultan's procession. Notice how Vien depicts the women and eunuchs as part of the opulent display. What does it mean to reduce people to mere elements of a decorative scene? This representation flattens the identities of the Sultan’s wives and the eunuchs, reinforcing the orientalist fantasies circulating in Europe at the time. The emotional impact of this piece lies in recognizing the human cost of such objectification. Vien's print invites us to consider the power dynamics inherent in cultural representation and the stories that get told—or erased—in the process.