The Madness of Nebuchadnezzar
The Madness of Nebuchadnezzar
Date1597-1681
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensionsoverall: 37 3/4 × 58 1/8 in. (95.9 × 147.6 cm)
frame: 47 7/8 × 67 7/8 in. (121.6 × 172.4 cm)
ClassificationPAINTINGS
Credit LineSBMA, Gift of Wright S. Ludington
Object number1957.4.2
Subject(s)
- animal
- horse
- dog
- cow
Collection
- Old Master
Sub-Collection(s)
- Northern European, Flemish
On View
On viewLabel TextAccording to the prophet Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar was an ancient Babylonian king, who went mad and wandered the forests like an animal for a period of seven years, whereupon his sanity was restored. That miracle caused Nebuchadnezzar to recognize the almighty authority of Jehovah, the God of Israel. In our painting, we are presented with a veritable menagerie of animals, including domesticated livestock, exotic camels, common forest life, and ferocious predators such as the tiger at the left. It takes a bit of time to find the mad king in the far middle ground, crawling, as Daniel described, like a bull on all fours. While it remains unclear if there is any historical truth to the tale of Nebuchadnezzar’s seven years of madness, he was a very powerful king with a long reign, who strived to rival the Egyptian pharaohs in his dominance. In the 17th century, this story would have functioned as a morality tale to warn against the false vanity of kingly pride. For this unidentified artist, the biblical subject provided an excuse to imagine a forest teeming with animals in every imaginable pose with a playfulness that is, perhaps, less moralizing than the most famous version of this subject, by the Romantic artist William Blake, now at the Tate.
