A lions' den

This large-scale composition relates most closely to Rubens’s monumental Daniel in the Lions’ Den (Washington, National Gallery of Art). Daniel is condemned by the Persian King Darius I to spend a night in the den for worshipping God, instead of himself. In spite of the menace of the lions, faithfully evoked here, Daniel miraculously survives. Rubens himself made many studies and sketches from direct observation at the royal menagerie in Brussels.