Belshazzar's Feast
Artwork by Rembrandt • 1635
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About this artwork - painting analysis
Inspired by the biblical narrative of the Book of Daniel, Belshazzar's Feast painted by Rembrandt in 1635 captures the dramatic moment when the King of Babylon witnesses, terrified, the appearance of a divine hand inscribing on the wall the Hebrew words announcing his imminent downfall. This monumental canvas of 168 x 209 cm, housed in the National Gallery in London, constitutes one of the most spectacular representations of the Old Testament created during the Dutch Golden Age. The Dutch painter captures with theatrical intensity the precise moment when divine prophecy interrupts the dissolute festivities of the Babylonian sovereign, transforming euphoria into terror.
The composition is organized around King Belshazzar, adorned in sumptuous Oriental garments – a white turban and a cape embroidered with gold – whose abrupt backward movement overturns a goblet of wine. His face expresses bewildered terror at the luminous characters "Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin" that float mysteriously in the darkness. Rembrandt deploys his legendary mastery of chiaroscuro to concentrate all attention on this supernatural apparition and on the reactions of the guests, plunged in a golden penumbra that accentuates the dramatic contrast. The warm tones – golds, browns and deep reds – dominate this scene where light seems to emanate from multiple sources, creating an atmosphere both sumptuous and unsettling.
The pictorial technique testifies to Rembrandt's genius at the height of his Baroque period. Generous impasto on precious fabrics contrasts with the vaporous treatment of the divine inscription, while secondary faces emerge from shadow according to the tenebrism technique that the artist had perfected. Fascinated by biblical iconography and Jewish culture in Amsterdam, Rembrandt is believed to have consulted rabbis to obtain the exact Hebrew transcription, attesting to his concern for authenticity.
This masterwork perfectly illustrates how Rembrandt transformed religious narratives into universal psychological dramas, establishing his reputation as one of the greatest visual storytellers in the history of Western art.
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Image license: faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional public domain work of art.
