3-075-123 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Belisarius and the Boy, 1802. Belisarius was a celebrated Byzantine general during the 500s CE. His armies conquered extensive territories around the Mediterranean for Emperor Justinian I, garnering him fame that made him a target for political intrigue in the imperial court. Rivals accused him of conspiring against the emperor, and, according to a 1767 version of this story popularized by the French novelist François Marmontel, Justinian blinded Belisarius in punishment. Benjamin West, an American painter working in London, shows the general impoverished, blind, and abandoned by his powerful friends, accompanied only by a young boy helping him beg for coins.