John Martin, the Victorian painter known for apocalyptic and catastrophic scenes, is this Yale lecture's subject, examined through his 1820 canvas Belshazzar's Feast. The lecturer situates Martin as a master scenographer whose theatrical staging of Babylon turned biblical disaster into public spectacle, tracing the Old Testament episode of Belshazzar's blasphemous feast and the divine handwriting that foretells his downfall. The talk covers how Martin composed the swirling, vertiginous vision of the city, the crowd's panic, and the lighting effects that made the painting a sensation when exhibited, drawing huge paying audiences in a way few history paintings had before. Part of a course on catastrophe and moral lesson in art, the lecture connects Martin's showmanship to broader questions about spectacle, religion, and celebrity in early nineteenth century British visual culture.