TOUL Group in Lorraine clay with three figures representing - Lot 250

Lot n° 250
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Estimation :
600 - 800 EUR
Result with fees
Result : 2 375EUR
TOUL Group in Lorraine clay with three figures representing - Lot 250
TOUL Group in Lorraine clay with three figures representing Belisarius giving alms on a rectangular terrace. Marked : Faïencerie de Toul - Belisaire - Cyfflée. 18th century. H. 32 cm, L. 30,5 cm. One arm and one hand restored. Procopius of Caesarea (500-565), secretary of the Byzantine general Belisarius (494-565) sent by Emperor Justinian to restore the Roman Empire, tells in his writings how his master, accused of conspiracy, was tried and sentenced to death in 563. In 1767, Jean-François Marmontel (1723-1799) made Belisarius the central character of his eponymous novel. The victorious general disowned by Justinian has become a blind old man, banished, wandering and reduced to begging, to whom Justinian comes for advice. This moral tale, and more particularly chapter XV, denouncing the arbitrariness of power and exhorting tolerance, is perceived as an attack on royal power and put on the index by the Faculty of Theology of the Sorbonne. The controversial work received the support of Voltaire and more than forty thousand copies were distributed throughout Europe. This literary success led, between the 1770s and 1800s, to an artistic infatuation with the theme of Belisarius as a beggar recognized by one of his former soldiers.
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