François Gérard, 1797 - Belisarius - fine art print

General specifications as provided from The J. Paul Getty Museum (© Copyright - The J. Paul Getty Museum - The J. Paul Getty Museum)

Along a winding dirt path, the blind Belisarius carries his young guide. The boy has been bitten by a snake, which remains coiled around his bleeding leg. With his right arm wrapped limply around Belisarius's neck and his eyes closed, the youth balances precariously between life and death. Belisarius's eyes are also closed, but guided by his stick he moves forward with determination and purpose. He rises heroically against the spectacular sunset, a monumental figure creating a powerful outline against the sky. But the flaring sunset also signals a chill night and the uncertainty of the path ahead.

Belisarius was a popular Byzantine general of the Roman Empire whose promising career was sabotaged by the jealous Emperor Justinian I. In 1767, a novel by Jean-François Marmontel revived interest in Belisarius. In Marmontel's novel, the emperor has the heroic general blinded, reducing Belisarius to begging. He is eventually rediscovered and aided by former officers and his family. This dramatic tale of patriotism, injustice, and redemption was widely embraced in revolutionary and post-revolutionary France and was a popular subject for artists--including Jacques-Louis David (François Gérard's teacher), Jean-Antoine Houdon, and Jean-Baptiste Stouf (whose sculpture Belisarius is also in the Museum's collection).

For this painting, Gérard both drew and departed from Marmontel's retelling of Belisarius's life. The general's young companion is present in Marmontel's novel. But to stress the bravery and pathos of the subject, Gérard introduced the incapacitating snakebite. While Belisarius was typically depicted in the act of begging, Gérard shows him standing and erect, his muscular form in sharp contrast to his guide's weakening body. The prominent helmet hanging from Belisarius's belt emphasizes the general's heroic past and underscores the injustice of his fall from favor.

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The classic art work of art was painted by the male artist François Gérard in 1797. The 220 year-old version of the piece of art was painted with the size: 91,8 × 72,5 cm (36 1/8 × 28 9/16 in). Oil on canvas was used by the French painter as the technique for the artwork. This work of art forms part of the art collection of The J. Paul Getty Museum. This classic art masterpiece, which is part of the public domain is being supplied with courtesy of The J. Paul Getty Museum.In addition, the artwork has the creditline: . Further, the alignment is in portrait format and has a side ratio of 3 : 4, which means that the length is 25% shorter than the width. The painter François Gérard was an artist, whose art style can mainly be classified as Romanticism. The French painter was born in the year 1770 and deceased at the age of 67 in 1837.

Legal note: We do our utmost to depict our products as precisely as we can and to illustrate them visually on the product detail pages. Still, the colors of the printed materials, as well as the printing can differ somehwat from the representation on the monitor. Depending on the settings of your screen and the condition of the surface, color pigments may not be printed one hundret percent realistically. Since all are printed and processed by hand, there may also be slight deviations in the size and exact position of the motif.

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