Template:POTD/2021-08-25
The Fiancée of Belus is a large narrative painting by the French artist Henri-Paul Motte based on a fanciful Babylonian ritual associated with the deity Belus (Bel). According to that ritual, the deity was offered a girl who sat on the lap of Bel's statue overnight, to be replaced the following day by another. All the girls were said to have been winners of daily beauty contests. For the interior of the Babylonian temple, Motte copied the Greek temple in Olympia, while the sculpture is inspired by the Assyrian deity Lamassu. The painting is in the collection of the Musée d'Orsay.Painting credit: Henri-Paul Motte