Esther Fainting Before Ahasuerus

1730

Jean-François De Troy

Inspired by the Venetian Masters, Jean-François de Troy (1679–1752) here depicts a biblical story in a decorative style with great attention to the rendering of materials. The young Esther, a Jewish exile in Babylon, beseeches her husband Ahasuerus, king of Persia, to spare her threatened people and reveals her origins. Ahasuerus decides to countermand his own orders and punish those who had advised him to issue them. The monumentality of the figures, the power of the architectural setting, the use of chiaroscuro and the brushwork are all characteristic of the Baroque style. As with the work of Jordaens, the composition makes the viewer a witness to the scene. De Troy was the author of seven large paintings of episodes in the life of Esther intended as models for the royal Gobelins factory in Paris, which produced the tapestries to adorn the royal palaces or serve as gifts to enrich the collections of foreign sovereigns.

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