Daniel in the Lions' Den
Peter Paul Rubens
c. 1614/1616
Daniel in the Lions' Den is an oil painting by the Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens, a pioneer of Baroque art. Painted around 1615, it depicts the biblical story of Daniel in the lions' den in the Book of Daniel, in which Daniel, a Jewish prophet, is cast into a den of lions for defying a royal decree that prohibited praying to anyone but king Darius the Mede. Daniel's miraculous survival is owed to his piety to God. The painting's classical elements and verisimilitude indicate the influence of Rubens' time in Italy; the lions are life-size and contribute to its dramatic impact.
National Gallery of Art, Washington · Image: CC0 · Text: Wikipedia (adapted), CC BY-SA 4.0