“Belshazzar’s Feast” (detail), c.1636-38, Rembrandt. “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...

“Belshazzar’s Feast” (detail), c.1636-38, Rembrandt.

“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 on the wall a phrase only Daniel could decipher. When transliterated the inscription reads: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. This is the interpretation: ‘God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; your kingdom is given to the Medes and Persians.’ That very night Belshazzar was slain.” (via)

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    I can’t believe I was confused by this too until I read that Rembrandt’s inscription reads vertically. Hence the uneven...
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