Belshazzar's Feast (Martin)

The hall is filled with crowds of feasting Babylonians and is open to the sky, with the Hanging Gardens of Babylon above, and the Tower of Babel and a ziggurat visible in the background, lit by the moon revealed by a break in dark swirling clouds.

Martin published an accompanying pamphlet with a key to help viewers to interpret the painting and identify the figures and structures.

There was appreciation of the magnificent architecture and emotional content, of the scale and bold colours of the work, but criticism of his painterly technique and particularly the execution of the figures.

Martin successfully claimed that he was reproducing his preliminary sketches, not the finished work, and versions of his engraving were published in 1826, in 1832, and for his Illustrations of the Bible project in 1835.

It was damaged in 1854 on its journey to Naylor's gallery at Leighton Hall near Welshpool, when the cart transporting it was hit by a train, but the painting was quickly repaired.

[1] It was exhibited in 2011 at Tate Britain, next to a half-size (80 × 120.7 cm, 31.5 × 47.5 in) "sketch" made by the artist himself around 1820, now owned by the Yale Center for British Art.