Drawing on Dutch masters, NY exhibit explores Christians painting themselves into Purim parable
Eschewing Persian version, Jewish Museum extends art curation scepter to masters like Rembrandt, who saw Esther’s heroism echoed in their own struggle against Catholic Spain
Reporter at The Times of Israel
NEW YORK — About a decade before the Eighty Years War between the Spanish Empire and the Dutch Republic ended, Rembrandt van Rijn took paintbrush to canvas and reimagined Queen Esther as a 17th-century Dutch woman.
The larger-than-life oil painting, “Jewish Heroine (probably Esther) from the Hebrew Bible,” depicts a woman wearing a sumptuous crimson and gold gown sitting on a chair while a man dresses her long, flaxen hair.
The canvas is now one of 120 works on display at Manhattan’s Jewish Museum, part of a major new exhibition: “The Book of Esther in the Age of Rembrandt.”
The exhibit, which features paintings and ceremonial objects, explores how the Book of Esther, particularly the titular queen’s courage in the face of persecution, inspired the Dutch master and his contemporaries. It is a story that struck a chord with the Calvinist Dutch who were emerging as a global trading powerhouse while freeing themselves from Catholic Spain. Likewise, it also resonated with Amsterdam’s Jewish population, who had found the city a haven of religious tolerance.
“This exhibition explores how artists and patrons in Rembrandt’s time—Jewish and Christian—shaped imagery based on the Book of Esther, imagining the heroic Queen Esther as their own, as a young woman who gave voice to the voiceless at the risk of her safety,” said Abigail Rapoport, the museum’s curator of Judaica.
The exhibit, which was co-organized with the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, will be on view through August 10. It will then travel to North Carolina in September, after which Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum will show a condensed version in August 2026.
As Shelley Perlove, professor emerita of art history at the University of Michigan explained, the Dutch considered Amsterdam to be the New Jerusalem of religious tolerance and freedom, in contrast to the tyranny of Catholic Spain of the Inquisition, with whom they were at war.
“The Dutch populace, like the Jews of the Esther story, were underdogs against this mighty empire that threatened to annihilate them, but Haman, the enemy of the Jews who was likened to Spain, met his demise: the Jew Mordechai was viewed as a Dutch patriot, and Esther, the brave Jewish queen, overcame all odds to save her people,” said Perlove, who is not connected with the show.
That fierceness is depicted in Jan Victors’s 1651 painting “Esther Accusing Haman.” Esther, garbed in a silvery robe with an elaborate jeweled headdress, wears a determined expression as she gestures toward a defensive, almost cowering Haman. Ahasuerus stands between them, wearing an ermine cloak more suited to the mid-1600s than to ancient Persia.
Esther’s more contemplative side is depicted in the 1685 painting “Esther and Mordecai” by Aert de Gelder. In it, Esther, whose face is illuminated, is shown holding papers and conferring with her uncle.
While Esther is the star, visitors might also want to consider the way other characters are portrayed, Perlove said.
“Of special interest to me is the interpretation of King Ahasuerus, who is often shown as divinely majestic in Catholic iconography, but also as a fool in Protestant and Jewish art,” Perlove said.
For example, in the artist Jan Steen’s 1670 “Wrath of Ahasuerus,” an irate Ahasuerus rises from the table having just knocked off a platter of peacock pie. While the cutlery, platters and dress suggest The Netherlands’s expanding role in global trade, Ahasuerus’s bearing suggests a commanding, if emotional, presence.
Two German firebacks from 1640, both of which feature Queen Esther, are among several pieces interspersed throughout the exhibit that show everyday objects decorated with scenes from the Purim story, which would not have been unusual to find in gentile homes at the time.
The heavy, cast-iron arches would have been set against a back wall of a hearth to both protect the stone and reflect the flames back into the room.
On one, King Ahasuerus and Queen Esther are shown walking together. In the other Queen Esther is depicted kneeling before Ahasuerus.
Another eye-catching object is a wooden cabinet that was made in England around 1665. Adorned with seed pearls, metal and linen threads and silk satin, the piece shows Esther pleading with Ahasuerus to stop the imminent annihilation of the Jews.
That the box held writing implements is of special note, according to the accompanying text. The Book of Esther ends with the hero and her uncle Mordechai writing letters describing the Purim holiday to far-flung Jewish communities.
While much attention is paid to the way the non-Jewish community viewed the story, it is important to note that Amsterdam’s Jewish community also found inspiration in the Purim story.
“Queen Esther was a symbol of bravery for Portuguese Jews who had to hide their identities in Catholic Spain, just like Esther had to when she first married Ahasuerus,” said James S. Snyder, who directs the museum and formerly headed up the Israel Museum.
On display are rare loans of Jewish ceremonial art from Amsterdam’s Portuguese Synagogue, including an extravagantly decorated lectern cover and Esther scrolls made by Salom Italia, the most influential maker of scrolls in Rembrandt’s time.
There are also sterling silver kiddush cups and a Shabbat lamp fashioned from delftware.
Yet, as much as the Dutch regarded the Purim story as a metaphor for triumph over adversity, and were fascinated with the Jewish queen, it is important not to over-romanticize Rembrandt’s relationship with Jewish people.
The painter lived on Jodenbreestraaat, or “Jews Broad Street,” among both Portuguese Jews and Ashkenazi Jews, and had business and personal relationships with the community. But he was no champion of the Jewish people, said Steven Nadler, a professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the author of “Rembrandt’s Jews.”
“It’s tempting to take these great figures of history, these creative and brilliant individuals, and see in them what we want to see,” Nadler said. “With Rembrandt, it’s not just tempting, it’s also comforting, to see him as a friend of the Jews at a particular historical period when Jews did not have a lot of friends in many places.”
Nevertheless, Nadler said visitors to the gallery ought to “fully appreciate Rembrandt’s brilliance and his ability to take these stories from the Hebrew Bible and the Book of Esther in particular and give them such a deeply felt rendering.”
