Which Rembrandt painting depicts a lavish feast interrupted by mysterious writing on a wall?

Rembrandt’s painting depicting a lavish feast interrupted by mysterious writing is Belshazzar’s Feast.

The scene comes from the Book of Daniel. Babylonian king Belshazzar holds a banquet using sacred vessels taken from the Temple in Jerusalem. A supernatural hand appears and writes words on the wall, announcing the judgment of the king and his kingdom. Rembrandt captures the instant when the diners react with alarm.

The painting is especially famous for its dramatic arrangement of figures and its depiction of the Hebrew inscription. Rembrandt consulted Jewish residents of Amsterdam while working on the subject, helping him represent the script more carefully than many European artists of the period.

Belshazzar’s Feast belongs to Rembrandt’s mature biblical style, in which theatrical lighting and intense facial reactions turn a written religious narrative into a moment of psychological drama. It is not the same subject as The Feast of Esther, another biblical banquet scene by Rembrandt.