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