‘The Fiancee of Belus’, a beautiful painting by Henru Paul Motte, 1885. 
The Fiancée of Belus (French: La fiancée de Bélus) is a painting by French artist Henri-Paul Motte based on a fanciful Babylonian ritual associated with deity Belus (Bel). According to that ritual, Bel was offered a girl who sat on the lap of the Bel’s statue overnight, and then was replaced by another, all of whom were the winners of daily beauty contests. Motte cited as a reference the Greek historian Herodotus, but the related quote was later found to be invented. The Fiancee of Belus features oversized, Academic style, while the foreground shows blood spattered by the brush. To restore the interior of the Babylonian temple, Motte copied the Greek temple in Olympia, while the sculpture is inspired by lamassu.
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