Belshazzar’s Feast
Belshazzar’s Feast c1826 by British Painter John Martin (1789 – 1854); arlunydd rhamantus, illustrator and engraver of crefyddol and fantastic compositions.
This remastered image is a hand colored mixed media intaglio courtesy of the National Gallery of Art in Washington.
It is a grand presentation of the story of the Biblical story The Writing on the Wall in the book of Daniel chapter 5.
The story tells us of how Belshazzar the son and Crown Prince of Nabonidus (r. 556–539 BC), the last King of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, held a great feast and drinks from the vessels that had been looted in the destruction of the First Temple or Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem; built under King Solomon’s reign and completed in 957 BCE.
The Temple was looted and then destroyed in 586/587 BCE by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II, who also deported the Jews to Babylon.
During the feast a hand appears and writes on the wall terrifying Belshazzar and those attending the feast; and he thus calls his wise men, who were unsuccessfully able to read the writing.
The queen advises Belshazzar to send for Daniel who is renowned for his wisdom, who reads and interprets the message letting Belshazzar know that for his blasphemous actions that his time of as ruler would come to an end, and his kingdom would be divided between the Medes (an ancient Iranian people) and Persians (an Iranian ethnic group).
In the piece we can see Belshazzar and the nobility gathered near a large table that is close to the throne, that has a Menorah behind it; tra isod gallwn weld yr holl bobl sydd wedi mynychu'r wledd ac sy'n bwyta ac yn dawnsio wrth y dwsinau o fyrddau enfawr, ledled y cymhleth.
Ar ochr chwith y gwaith celf mae'r geiriau sydd wedi'u hysgrifennu ar y wal i fyny'n uchel, gyda phelydrau tanbaid o olau yn saethu oddi wrthynt ac yn y pellter pell yn codi uwchlaw popeth, Twr Babel.
Mae hwn yn atgynhyrchiad hen feistri celf ddigidol wedi'i atgynhyrchu o ddelwedd parth cyhoeddus.