L'Orient Fantasmé

L'Orient fantasmé delves into how the West has imagined and represented the Orient through art, particularly from the 18th to the early 20th centuries. The book examines the influence of events such as the Persian embassies to Louis XIV's court, the 1717 French translation of One Thousand and One Nights, and the publication of Montesquieu's Lettres persanes in 1721. These events sparked a growing fascination with the East, leading to artistic movements like the "turqueries" of the 18th century and the Orientalist paintings of the colonial era. The book features a collection of works from the Musée d'art et d'histoire de Narbonne, highlighting how artists romanticized and mythologized Eastern cultures.