Belisarius and His Guide

Antoine Denis Chaudet

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The popularity of the victorious sixth-century Byzantine general Belisarius aroused the jealous wrath of his emperor Justinian to the point that he had Belisarius imprisoned, then blinded and turned loose to beg for his living. Antiroyalist elements in French society found parallels in the court of Louis XVI, which was coming under increased criticism. When the terracotta model for this group was exhibited at the Salon of 1791, the sentimental Neoclassical public surely relished its pathos and the contrast between the forms of the sightless but ever-proud mendicant and his weary young guide. The quality of the bronze's chasing led early commentators to suppose Chaudet carried it out himself, but more likely he turned to a professional foundry for the expertise needed to give the metal its dazzling range of surfaces. The Neoclassical age sometimes had unexpected kinetic moments: fitted within the unpatinated base is the original turntable on which the group can be revolved so as to be appreciated from every angle.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The fifty thousand objects in the Museum's comprehensive and historically important collection of European sculpture and decorative arts reflect the development of a number of art forms in Western European countries from the early fifteenth through the early twentieth century. The holdings include sculpture in many sizes and media, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, metalwork and jewelry, horological and mathematical instruments, and tapestries and textiles. Ceramics made in Asia for export to European markets and sculpture and decorative arts produced in Latin America during this period are also included among these works.

Metropolitan Museum of Art