Baptism of the Eunuch 

Louis Chéron created this print, Baptism of the Eunuch, sometime between 1660 and 1725. It depicts a scene from the Acts of the Apostles. The eunuch, a court official from Ethiopia, encountered Phillip the Evangelist, and asked to be baptized. What interests me most is the intersection of identity and religious conversion taking place in the print. The eunuch's position as a person of color and a non-binary individual within the Ethiopian court presents a complex layering of social, racial, and gendered identities. This raises the question of how conversion narratives intersect with the dynamics of race, gender, and power. Chéron's print invites us to consider the emotional and transformative potential inherent in acts of faith and baptism, and prompts us to consider broader questions about identity, belonging, and self-discovery.