Moriscos Embarking at the Port of Denia, Painted in 1613
Moriscos being put aboard ship at Denia, one of the four Valencian ports used for the expulsion ordered in 1609. Vicente Mestre painted the scene within four years of the event, as part of a commissioned series recording the operation — from the side that ordered it.
The royal order was published in Valencia on 22 September 1609 and the embarkations began within days. Denia, Alicante, Vinaròs and Moncófar handled the traffic; by January 1610 the kingdom was largely emptied of the population that had worked its irrigated huerta. The paintings in this series were made for patrons who regarded the removal as an achievement, which is exactly what makes them evidence: the ships, the escorts, the baggage and the crowds on the quay are recorded because someone wanted the scale of it remembered. See the 1609 expulsion of the Moriscos from Valencia.
Public domain — source (Wikimedia Commons). Free to reuse under the stated licence.
