Balthazar. Black African king in the art of the Middle Ages and Renaissance

Legends of the early Middle Ages reported that one of the three kings who paid tribute to the newborn baby Christ in Bethlehem was from Africa. But almost a thousand years passed before the artists began to represent Balthazar, the youngest of the Magi, as a black African.

Exhibition "Balthazar"is devoted to comparing a seemingly positive image with painful stories of African-European contacts, especially with the brutal enslavement of African peoples.