Shop art print and framed art Belshazzar's Feast by Rembrandt

Balthazar's Feast is a major painting by Rembrandt, a painter from the Golden Age of Dutch painting, inspired by the story in the Book of Daniel. It depicts King Balthazar deciphering a mysterious inscription on a wall that begins with the words Mene tekel. Painted by Rembrandt at an unknown date, probably between 1636 and 1638, it is currently in the National Gallery in London. The painting represents Rembrandt's attempt to establish himself as a painter of great Baroque history paintings. The date of the painting is unknown, but most sources give a date between 1635 and 1638. The story of Balthazar and the inscription on the wall of the Mene tekel originated in the Old Testament book of Daniel. The Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II plundered the Temple of Jerusalem and stole sacred objects such as the golden cups. His son Balthazar used these cups for a great feast where the hand of God appeared and wrote on the wall the inscription prophesying the fall of Balthazar's reign: "mene, mene, tekel, upharsin". Biblical scholars interpret this as meaning "God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; you have been weighed in the scales and found wanting; your kingdom is given to the Medes and Persians". The inscription on the wall is an interesting feature of this painting. Rembrandt lived in the Jewish quarter of Amsterdam and "derived the form of the Hebrew inscription from a tanakh of his friend, the learned rabbi and printer, Manasse ben Israel, but [...]

 

This artwork is a painting from the classical period. It belongs to the baroque style.

 

Find the full description of Belshazzar's Feast by Rembrandt on Wikipedia.