Boyd – Nebuchadnezzar on fire, fallen in a field

Arthur Boyd, an Australian artist, created over 100 paintings of Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, was written about by Daniel in the Old Testament. His success and inflated view of his position made him think he was a god. His hubris, pride and arrogance led to him losing his mind, and he wandered the fields like a beast, eating grass and growing his hair and nails.

Boyd shows him burned out in a blaze of his own imagined glory and now fallen to earth, fallen from his exalted position in the heavens, faced with the reality of his own inadequacy to even control his own mind and body. A pitiful figure, twisted in pain, unable to square his complete confidence in himself with where he now finds himself.

With many others in his generation, Boyd had been shocked by the atom bomb, recognising we had created existential risk. He saw that pride and hubris reigned in our hearts: that we would still be congratulating ourselves as we sowed seeds of disaster.