Portrait Bust of Joseph-Louis-Hippolyte Bellange 1847

This is a portrait bust of Joseph-Louis-Hippolyte Bellange, crafted by Jean-Pierre Dantan. Notice the glasses, an emerging symbol of intellect and modernity in the 19th century. The gaze through spectacles suggests insight, echoing the classical tradition of philosophers and seers. We find such symbols in the ancient world; consider the blind seer Tiresias, whose lack of physical sight paradoxically granted him profound vision. Later we see the eyeglasses motif revived during the Renaissance, in portraits of scholars and humanists. The eyeglasses, in the context of this bust, symbolize the subject’s engagement with knowledge and progress, subtly suggesting that this man not only sees the world but understands it. This emblem speaks to the cyclical return and reinterpretation of symbols across time.