THE FEAST OF BELSHAZZAR
The dramatic composition, Baroque splendor and exotic costumes from the East are typical of Rembrandt’s style during the middle 1630’s. Here the action is frozen at its apex with the faces charged with emotion. King Belshazzar was the last king of Babylonia and here he sees the hand of God reaching out to give him a message. Chiaruscuro is used as the brilliance of the Hebrew letters light up the faces and the elegant costumes. Notice the use of diagonals to emphasize the drama and action as your eye follows each line. A diagonal on the left is formed by the four heads. A center diagonal is formed by the king’s head, arm, hand, and the hand of the lady on the left. A diagonal is also formed on the right by hands, the goblet and the lady’s head.
Rembrandt lived in a Jewish section of Amsterdam and had many Jewish friends. He painted many scenes from the Old Testament as well as Jewish subjects. In 1639, Samuel Manasseh ben Israel of Amsterdam published his treastice on Belshazzar. In it he suggested that the king’s wise men could not read the writing (hence the cliche”-“did not see the writing on the wall”) because the letters had been reversed, reading up and down instead of from right to left as in regular Hebrew. (reading down from the right: mena, mena, tekel, oofar, sin)
| S | U | T | M | M |
| e | e | e | ||
| I | F | K | N | N |
| a | e | e | e | |
| N | R | L |
Rembrandt must have, learned of this novel explanation since he followed it exactly in his picture. Rembrandt always strived for archaeological and Biblical accuracy in his paintings. The prophet Daniel explained the text in the book of Daniel. The writing on the wall explained by Daniel is: “God hath numbered thy Kingdom and finished it. Though art weighed in the balance and found wanting”.
The original painting was finished in 1637 and is now located in the National Gallery in London. My copy here was my last pastel. After this painting, I moved on to acrylics and then oil.
Pastel on paper 1981