Belisarius Begging for Alms
mid-18th–early 19th century
Medium
Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash over black chalk, over graphite underdrawing
Dimensions
10 5/8 x 14 1/2 in. (27 x 36.8 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1947
Accession Number
47.155.7
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the evocative drawing *Belisarius Begging Alms*, created by German Neoclassical artist Heinrich Friedrich Füger the mid-18th to early 19th century we witness a poignant moment from ancient legend. Füger, a prominent figure in Vienna's art scene and director of the of Fine Arts, captures the dramatic fall of Byzantine general Belisarius. Once a triumphant commander under Emperor Justinian I Belisarius was reportedly blinded, stripped of wealth, and reduced to begging on the streets—an enduring tale of fortune's fickleness popularized in Western art during the Neoclassical era, which revered ...