Belisarius

The legendary Byzantine general Belisarius, blinded and reduced to begging, appears in this painting from around 1644 at the Abbot Hall Art Gallery in Kendal. Belisarius"s fall from imperial favor was one of the most popular moral subjects in European art, illustrating the fickleness of fortune and the ingratitude of the powerful. Rosa"s treatment places the fallen general in a wilderness setting that transforms the classical moral tale into a meditation on human vulnerability in an indifferent natural world.

The blind general is shown in a rocky landscape, his former grandeur suggested by the remnants of military dress contrasting with his present degradation. Rosa"s characteristic dark palette serves the moral seriousness of the subject, with the figure emerging from shadow to receive the viewer"s sympathy. The landscape overwhelms the human figure, as in Rosa"s other philosophical subjects, suggesting that nature outlasts all human glory.