Mane, Thecel, Phares: Belshassar's Feast (Louvre, MNR) - Bertuzzi
Description
The feast table is presided over on the left by Belshassar, King of Babylon, on the right by Nebuchadnezzar's widow. At top center, above the twisted columns, the miraculous hand shows rather than traces the prophetic inscription, MANE, THECEL, PHARES. The guests are seated with their backs to the inscription, which they can only see by turning around. Only the King and Queen Mother, seated at either end of the horseshoe-shaped table, could immediately see the letters as they appeared. The horseshoe creates an empty space at the front of the scene, so that the canvas delimits three planes: the foreground, empty in the center, is occupied at either end by the servants bringing the food for the feast. This is the space of trivial realities. The second plane, raised by a platform, is devoted to the feast itself. This is the space of representation, or the restricted space of the stage. The third plane, at the back, is occupied by the inscription: this is the space outside, the vague space
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2. Formerly attributed to Jacopo Guarana, and falsely identified as The Banquet of Nebuchadnezzar.
This painting is part of the MNR, "Musées Nationaux Récupération": these are works recovered in Germany at the end of the Second World War and which, having failed to find their rightful owners, were entrusted by the Office des biens privés to the custody of the Direction des musées de France by virtue of the decree of September 30, 1949.
. Probably comes from the palace of Bagnarola di Budrio near Bologna. Sold in May 1944 by Hermsen for 1,200,000 F to the representative of the Dorotheum, Vienna; acquired on May 31, 1944 for 40,000 RM by the Linz Museum; registered at the Central Collecting Point in Munich under no. 7489.
. Attributed to the Musée du Louvre by the Office des Biens et Intérêts Privés in 1951.
3. The composition appears to be inspired by Francken's, of which there are many replicas: the canopy above Balthasar, the king and queen face each other on either side of the inscription.
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Technical Data
Notice #001220
