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Belshazzar's Feast is a painting by Rembrandt

A Festa de Baltazar - Rembrandt, c. 1635

National Gallery, London

 

Belshazzar's Feast

Rembrandt, 1635

Oil on canvas

167.6 × 209.2 cm

National Gallery, London

 

Belshazzar's Feast is a painting by Rembrandt painted in about 1635. The source for this painting is the story of Belshazzar, in the Old Testament Book of Daniel (Daniel 5).

 

Belshazzar's Feast refers to an event described in the Book of Daniel, in which the Babylonian king Belshazzar profanes the sacred vessels of the enslaved Jews, and, as prophesized by the writing on the wall, is slain, leading to their freedom.

 

The writing on the wall (or sometimes 'handwriting on the wall') is an expression that suggests a portent of doom or misfortune. It originates in the Biblical book of Daniel—where supernatural writing fortells the demise of the Babylonian Empire, but it has come to have a wide usage in language and literature.

 

www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/Collect...

 

Belshazzar's Feast is a painting by Rembrandt painted in about 1635. The source for this painting is the story of Belshazzar, in the Old Testament Book of Daniel (Daniel 5).

 

biblia.com/jesusbible/daniel4.htm

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Uploaded on November 5, 2007
Taken on November 4, 2007