Monday, July 04, 2005
A Simple Feast
Bird made an additional stop on his way back from Finland (see below) to add Rembrandt's Belshazzar's Feast to the summer art tour. Rembrandt's source for this painting, the Old Testament Book of Daniel, tells of a banquet Belshazzar, King of Babylon, gave for his nobles. At this banquet he blasphemously served wine in the sacred vessels his father Nebuchadnezzar had looted from the Temple in Jerusalem.
Rembrandt shows the moment when a divine hand appeared and wrote a phrase on the wall. Only Daniel was able to interpret the meaning for Belshazzar and that translation was, "God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting."
That very night Belshazzar was slain.
As a most interesting side note to this story/painting is that it is the origin of the term "the writing on the wall." And as with all good stories, a flamingo was involved.
The painting hangs in The National Gallery in London.
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