The Painting Esther Before Ahasuerus

The painting Esther before Ahasuerus (figure 1) is based on an apocryphal passage of Esther and thus is not in every Bible. The passage is based on a Greek text that replaces Esther 5:1,2 of the Hebrew text, often called Addition D. While the Council of Trent gave these Greek additions the canonical status in 1546, they were popular in use in the seventeenth century (Christiansen, Mann, pp. 373). In the passage, Esther, “arrayed in splendid attire”, and when she stood before the King, “her heart frozen with fear”. The King then “looked at her in fierce anger”, which caused Queen Esther to collapse. God intervened by changing “the spirit of the King to gentleness”, resulting in him leaving his throne to comfort Esther (NRSV D:1-10). This alternative passage
No explicit intervention of God is necessary because Esther is not so frightened by the King that she collapses.
While in the biblical text, the wealth and splendor of King Ahasuerus’s grandiose palace is very much stressed, Artemisia leaves this out in Esther before Ahasuerus, including the scepter mentioned in Esther 5:2 and the many servants. By only portraying the King, two handmaidens and Esther in a darkened room, the painting primarily focusses on the fainting of Esther (Kauffman, pp. 169). The King’s rising from his throne and the expression on his face indicate the sympathy he feels for Esther (Kauffman, pp. 169). Esther is portrayed as about to faint, but still standing up, while she was typically portraying begging or kneeling (Christiansen, Mann, pp. 376). The standing position might one Artemisia’s ways of presenting her as a stronger heroine (Garrard, pp. 76). However, Christiansen