Daniel in the Lions’ Den by Peter Paul Rubens. Painted around 1614 to 16. Oil on canvas. Painted surface over 7 feet high by nearly 11 feet wide.
This description is about 3 minutes long.
This painting illustrates the Biblical story of Daniel. He is shown as a mostly nude, muscular, white-skinned man, sitting in an underground cave surrounded by nine lions. Daniel sits on a rock to the right of center. A glimpse of blue sky is visible through a narrow, circular opening just over his head. With hands clasped, he looks up to the opening. Two of the lions are females; the others are males with thick, furry manes. Their tawny golden color dominates the palette of the painting.
Daniel’s body faces us, and he sits with his left knee crossed over his right. He has shoulder length, chestnut brown hair and a heavily muscled body. A white cloth is draped around his hips and a scarlet cloth is spread out over the rocks to our right. Light falls on him from the opening in the cave above. A few plants grow from the brown rocks under the opening.
The lions sit, stand, and lie on two levels, with five to our left, on the same level as Daniel. The other four are in front, spanning the width of the composition along the floor of the cave.
Let’s start with the lions at the back. Beside Daniel on the rock, to our left, are two male lions, one behind the other. The one at the back yawns with his mouth wide open to reveal long teeth and a curling tongue. The one in front stands with its head slightly lowered, looking out towards us with amber eyes. To the left of that pair, another male and a female recline. The female lies with front paws crossed, looking off to our left. The male sleeps in the shadowy recesses of the rocky cave. At the far left a male faces our right in profile, teeth bared in a mild snarl; his body from the shoulders back is cut off by the left edge of the canvas.
On the floor of the cave, two males recline to our left. The one at the far left looks directly at us with his head turned over one shoulder. The other, near the center of the canvas, sleeps with his chin on the ground at Daniel’s feet. To the right, a male and female prowl around each other with teeth bared. The male stalks with his head lowered in a near crouch. Along the right edge of the composition, the female lashes her tail and raises one front paw.
A human skull and several bones are scattered across the sandy ground at the bottom of the canvas.
