Three Scenes from the Story of Esther
Filippino Lippi and Sandro Botticelli (1457-1504; c. 1445-1510) · c. 1475-1500
Three moments from the Old Testament book of Esther run across the front of what was once a wedding chest. At the left Mordecai laments in sackcloth outside the palace gate after learning of the decree against the Jews; in the centre Esther faints as she appears unbidden before King Ahasuerus, who reaches out to her; at the right the vizier Haman, whose plot has been exposed, begs Esther in vain for his life. Slender figures in fifteenth century dress move through arcaded courtyards drawn in careful perspective.
The panel was made in Florence in the last quarter of the fifteenth century. The museum attributes the composition and the central group to Botticelli and the rest of the painting to the young Filippino Lippi, who was then working in Botticelli's shop. Two more scenes from the same chest are in Ottawa and Rome, and three panels telling the earlier part of the story, now in Chantilly, Florence and Ottawa, probably decorated a companion chest. Esther, the Jewish queen who saved her people, was a model of the virtuous bride. The panel came to the Louvre in nineteen seventy two through a dation, in payment of inheritance tax.
Did You Know? The panel is the front of a wedding chest, and the other pieces of the same chest are now in Ottawa and Rome.
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