All About Belshazzar’s Feast by Rembrandt

Title of Artwork: “Belshazzar’s Feast”

Artwork by Rembrandt

Year Created 1635

Summary of Belshazzar’s Feast

The National Gallery in London displays Rembrandt’s masterpiece, Belshazzar’s Feast. With this picture, Rembrandt is attempting to establish himself as a painter of monumental historical works in the baroque style.

Daniel’s Book of Daniel is where the narrative of Belshazzar and the writing on the wall comes from. The religious artefacts, such as golden cups, were stolen by Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian monarch, during his plunder of the Jerusalem Temple. When Belshazzar, his father’s son, drank these cups at a lavish banquet, the hand of God came and inscribed an inscription on the wall foretelling Belshazzar’s demise.

All About Belshazzar’s Feast

I like the wall text in this artwork since it adds interest to the piece. One of Rembrandt’s friends, Menasseh ben Israel, was an accomplished Rabbi and printer, and the two collaborated on the form of the Hebrew inscription.

However, one of the characters was mistranscribed and put in columns, rather than right to left as Hebrew is written. Because Belshazzar and his counsellors were unable to read the inscription, they had to send for Daniel to help them with it, this particular aspect is crucial.

According to the Bible, mysterious messages are written in Aramaic, which, like Hebrew, is written in right-to-left rows rather than columns, unlike the artwork.

It is possible that the unconventional arrangement of this painting’s text (reading the text in the painting in conventional row-wise left-to-right order results in a garbled message) may suggest why the Babylonian priests were unable to decipher the writing; indeed, this explanation is in accordance with the opinion of amora Shmuel that is mentioned in the Babylonian Talmud, T. Though it’s doubtful Rembrandt was aware of this, given no evidence suggests he was competent in the Talmud.

For the theft of the picture, Frederick and Henry Worseldine were convicted in 1834. Frederick was sentenced to life in prison in Tasmania after being proven guilty. Henry was cleared, but a few years later, he followed his brother.

Another interesting fact about John and Martha’s father is that after he divorced their mother in 1841 and began an affair with a woman named Martha, he was assassinated in 1848 by Martha’s new husband William Sheward, who was executed in Norwich for his crimes.

It is impossible to compare Rembrandt’s painting techniques and materials in Belshazzar’s Feast to any of his other works. There are a surprising number of colours used in this work, including vermilion, smalt, lead-tin-yellow, yellow and red lakes, ochers, and azurite.

Information Citations

En.wikipedia.org, https://en.wikipedia.org/.

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