Daniel in the Lions' Den is a painting from around 1615 by the Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens that is displayed in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Daniel was a Jewish prophet who was thrown into a den of lions for defying a royal decree that prohibited praying to anyone but the king.

Over the centuries, the painting changed hands multiple times, eventually becoming part of the Hamilton Palace collection before being sold to the National Gallery of Art in 1965.

Rubens' time in Italy profoundly influenced his artistic style, evident in the classical elements and lifelike representations in Daniel in the Lions' Den.

The figure of Daniel, influenced by classical sculptures and Renaissance art, is depicted as a young man, even though the biblical account suggests he was much older.

[1] He was converted to Catholicism shortly before his father's death on 1587 and raised from the age of 10 as a Catholic, due to the threat from Magistrate of Cologne to expel every Protestant from the city.

[2] Daniel in the Lions' Den was created after Rubens had returned to Antwerp from Italy at the start of the Twelve Years' Truce in 1609.

During this time, he was deeply influenced by classical sculptures by Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Correggio, Tintoretto, Caravaggio, and Annibale Carracci.

[4] The expression on Daniel's face may show this influence, as it is similar to those on the sculpture of the Dying Alexander and The Penitent Saint Jerome by Girolamo Muziano.

[7] Rachel Aviva Pollack, a researcher from the University of Maryland, suggests that this painting is a political allegory representing the situation during the Twelve Years' Truce, due to the inclusion of ten lions, the same number of provinces within the Southern Netherlands.

Despite his exile, Daniel rose to prominence in the Babylonian court, serving the king and his successors with wisdom and integrity, all while staying faithful to the Yahweh until the Persian conquest led by Cyrus the Great.

There he encountered his old acquaintances Tobie Matthew and George Gage, who went with Carleton to Antwerp, where he visited artists' studios, including Rubens's.

Carleton decided to purchase The Wolf and Fox Hunt with help from Matthew, Gage and the English diplomat William Trumbull, but negotiations fell through when Rubens instead sold the painting to the Duke of Aarschot.

The painting was displayed in the Bear Gallery at the Palace of Whitehall from around 1628 to 1641, in the formal reception area leading to Charles' private chambers, as a symbol of his royal authority.

The painting was hung alongside Minerva Protecting Peace from Mars, which Rubens had gifted to Charles during his diplomatic mission to London between May 1629 and March 1630.

Concerned by its size and by the frame, they took it to Bonhams, who misattributed it as a work by Paul de Vos and Jacob Jordaens {the "stumpy legs" in the Daniel figure was thought to be characteristic of the artists' style).

Rubens had access to exotic animals due to his role as a court painter for Albert VII, Archduke of Austria and Isabella Clara Eugenia in Brussels.