This October we celebrate Black History Month through the stories, voices, and histories connected to our collection.

Discover how ideals of beauty and race shaped Titian's depiction of Andromeda in Perseus and Andromeda, painted for Philip II of Spain. Explore Nattier's Mademoiselle de Clermont en sultane, where six unnamed black women serve as symbols of wealth and exoticism, raising questions about race and power in French society. Or meet Govaert Flinck's Young Archer, a rare 17th-century Dutch study that places a black sitter at the centre of the picture. And uncover how the mahogany of a Riesener roll-top desk reveals the links between 18th-century luxury and the transatlantic slave trade.