Wikimedia Commons • Public Domain
Belshazzar's Feast
by John Martin
StyleRomanticism
Artwork Details
Where to See It
Yale Centre For British Art (Yale University), New Haven, CTNew Haven, United States
Permanently housed
Cite or Embed This Work
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John Martin completed this dramatic scene from the Book of Daniel. King Belshazzar's feast is interrupted by a supernatural hand writing a prophecy of doom on the wall. Martin fills the canvas with vast architecture and tiny terrified figures.
Martin specialized in apocalyptic biblical scenes with overwhelming scale. Lightning illuminates the great hall as chaos erupts among the revelers. The work hangs at the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven.
