Works of this kind were called ‘perspectives’ in the seventeenth century; it is possible to imagine original viewers examining them from exactly the right position (with one eye) to get the full three-dimensional effect. It is clear even to the naked eye that the architecture was painted first and the figures added over the top of a complete interior. In this case the story is especially relevant as it hangs upon architectural observation: Cyrus believes that the false god Bel nightly consumes quantities of food; Daniel discovered a secret passage by which the priests of Bel gain access to the temple to do so on his account. This is a characteristic perspective of c. 1620 created by an artist working in the circle of Hendrick van Streenwyck I and II (compare, for example, CWLF 86, 405467 and CWLF 88, 402602). For the moment Neefs is the most probably candidate.