Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606-1669), Belshazzar’s Feast, c.1637, Oil on canvas, 167.6 × 209.2 cm, The National Gallery, London
Painted when Rembrandt was just thirty, ‘Belshazzar’s Feast’ marked his ambitious entry into grand history painting. He chose the biblical episode from the Book of Daniel’, chapter 5, where mysterious writing appears on the wall during a Babylonian banquet, foretelling King Belshazzar’s downfall. The words written are: Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin (מנא מנא תקל ופרסין). These Aramaic words are units of currency, but, as Daniel interprets them, they carry metaphorical meanings: ‘Mene’ (God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end), ‘Tekel’ (you have been weighed and found wanting), and ‘Peres’ (your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians). The writing is understood as a divine verdict, signalling Belshazzar’s imminent death and the end of his reign. The painting displays Rembrandt’s mastery in depicting intricate Asian textiles using a complex mix of pigments—gold leaf, vermilion, and ultramarine—matching the depth of the biblical scene, rich in layered theological meanings.
Rembrandt, then living in Amsterdam’s Jewish quarter, was likely influenced by his neighbour, the rabbi and scholar Manasseh ben Israel (1604–1657), though no direct link is recorded. Scholars have suggested that the wrong vertical layout and cryptic spacing of the letters were not a mistake but a well-planned visual metaphor—echoing rabbinic traditions where this writing was meant to be obscure, a divine riddle seen by all but understood only by Daniel.
The hand of God (yad El) is also a biblical motif, especially in Exodus, where God’s hand leads Israel out of Egypt—reinforcing the idea that no empire can stand against divine will.
The exaggerated hands in the painting are Rembrandt’s idiom for monumentality and his vehicle for expressive form. Their scale is intentional, not a flaw in anatomy. In Rembrandt’s visual language, the hands become a key site for registering psychological tension—conveying fear, disbelief, and confrontation with the divine.
