JUSTINIAN IN COUNCIL 

 Photogravure from the Painting "by Jean Joseph Benjamin-Constant. 



This famous painting was originally exhibited in the Paris Salon of 1888, 

 and was presented in 1890 by G. Mannheimer to the Metropolitan Museum of 

 Art in New York. Justinian, surnamed the Great, was the last Emperor of 

 Constantinople, who in the sixth century, by his dominion over the whole of 

 Italy, reunited in some measure the ancient Empire of the Caesars. The glory 

 of his reign is the famous digest of Roman law, known to fame as the Justinian 

 Code. The scene depicted in Benjamin-Constant's painting is a slave reading 

 before Justinian and his Cabinet some portion of this celebrated code. 



