The Hand-Writing upon the Wall

This is one of ten or more propagandistic prints created by Gillray in the wake of the failure of the Peace of Amiens and the resumption of the war against France in the last half of 1803. Two of them—Death of the Corsican-Fox and Buonaparte, 48 Hours after Landing— had already portrayed the death of Buonaparte as, in effect, a fait accompli. This one, along with two broadsides—Boney and Talley. The Corsican Carcase - Butcher's Reckoning Day and The Corsican-pest:-or-Belzebub going to supper— took another approach, suggesting that, if Buonaparte was not already dead, his defeat and death were fated and imminent. All of them, of course, were examples of patriotic wishful thinking since Buonaparte was not actually defeated until 1815.

The Hand-Writing upon the Wall

The Hand-Writing upon the Wall [August 24, 1803]
© Trustees of the British Museum

The design of the print is based on the story of king Belshazzar in the Book of Daniel. In the middle of a great feast he had arranged for "his princes, his wives, and his concubines," Belshazzar was interrrupted by the appearance of "a man's hand" writing a cryptic message on the wall: "MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN." "Then was king Belshazzar greatly troubled, and his countenance was changed in him, and his lords were astonied (sic)."

The meaning of the writing was ultimately deciphered by Daniel.

Mene; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it.
Tekel; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.
Peres: Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.

In Gillray's print, Napoleon is, of course, king Belshazzar. He is surrounded by "concubine" equivalents three of whom (in fashionable undress) are usually assumed to represent Buonaparte's sisters: Elisa, Pauline, and Caroline. Another (on the far right) with a firm grip on the neck of the bottle before her, has also grabbed the attention of a lascivious officer. The last one (on the far left) has engrossed the interest of the admitted traitor, Arthur O'Connor, identified by his civilian clothes and an empty bottle labeled Maidstone. (Before being banished to France in 1802, his first trial for high treason had been conducted at Maidstone.) He holds a plate of pommes d'amour (love apples) which may be simply a dish of candied apples or a metaphor for the breasts of the prostitute behind it.

Next to Napoleon/Belshazzar is his wife, Josephine, whose appetite for the finer things in life is grossly caricatured in a wine-swilling, bejeweled obesity. Her reputation for devouring famous men is alluded to in the "Prune Monsieur" before her which, as Tim Clayton and Sheila O'Connell note, is a slang term for testicles.

Elsewhere on the table are molded desserts based on English sites and institutions that Napoleon hopes to feast upon. They include the Tower of London, St. James's Palace, the Bank of England, and perhaps the King himself as the "Roast Beef of Old England."

But Napoleon's eyes and the eyes of the small army of grendadiers protecting him have been suddenly drawn to a phantom hand (resembling the hand and arm of God in the Sistine Chapel) pointing at the judgment rendered upon Belshazzar in the Book of Daniel. Like Belshazzar, Buonaparte has been "weighed in the balances, and . . . found wanting." The scales of justice appearing above and behind him show the late French King's crown far outweighing the bonnet rounge and manacles of Buonaparte's "Despotism." His days are numbered, Gillray suggests, and his kingdom will soon be divided.

As Tim Clayton and Sheila O'Connell have noted, Buonaparte's pose is ultimately derived from Rembrandt's painting, Belshazzar's Feast. A 1785 print of the painting by Henry Hudson would have been available to Gillray.

Rembrandt, Belshazzar's Feast

Rembrandt
Belshazzar's Feast [~1635]
© National Gallery (London)

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