<P> Daniel in the Lions' Den is a 1615 painting by the Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens, now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC . </P> <P> The subject is from Daniel 6: 1 - 28 . Rubens modelled the lions on a Moroccan subspecies, examples of which were then in the Spanish governor's menagerie in Brussels . In 1618 he acquired more than a hundred pieces of classical sculpture, in exchange for this painting, eight others and a sum of money . </P> <P> Although the painting shows Daniel as a young man, according to the biblical chronology Daniel would have been over eighty years old at the time of the incident depicted . </P>

Daniel in the lion's den sir peter paul rubens