Jean-Baptiste Martin (Martin des Batailles): A Master of Baroque Military Art Jean-Baptiste Martin, known universally as “Martin des Batailles,” was a pivotal figure in 18th-century French art, renowned for his dramatic and meticulously rendered battle scenes and significant contributions to the Gobelins Manufactory. Born in Paris in 1659, he emerged from the workshop of Laurent de La Hyre, a skilled decorator, and later benefited immensely from the tutelage of Adam Frans van der Meulen, one of the era’s foremost military painters. This lineage instilled within him a deep understanding of co…