The Guardian Weekly

Belshazzar’s Feast

Riches have never been painted in a more hallucinatory way than in Rembrandt’s Belshazzar’s Feast, his version of the biblical story of Belshazzar, who feasted from plates stolen from the holy temple. Even without the writing on the wall, this man is in a gilded hell. Gold glows everywhere but turns to rancid butter. His glowing golden cape is a quagmire of pigment, a swamp of money. A golden jug with its neck turned towards us opens a shining void. Wealth, warns Rembrandt, is a whirlpool of insatiable desires. Jonathan Jones

Culture | Books

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2021-10-22T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-10-22T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://theguardianweekly.pressreader.com/article/282505776794020

Guardian/Observer