Gallery  October 3, 2025  Amy Funderburk

The Book of Esther in the Age of Rembrandt

Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, Museum Appropriation Fund, 17.138

Aert de Gelder, Esther and Mordecai, circa 1685, oil on canvas, 23 1/2 × 56 1/2 in.

The Book of Esther in the Age of Rembrandt centers on the popularity of the Jewish heroine Esther in Dutch art. Celebrated for delivering her people from genocide, this Queen of Persia strategically revealed her previously hidden Jewish identity to her royal husband, convincing him to foil his advisor’s plot. Michele L. Frederick, the North Carolina Museum of Art Curator of European Art and Provenance Research, partnered with Abigail Rapoport, Curator of Judaica, Jewish Museum, New York, to co-curate the exhibition.

Along with artworks including paintings and etchings, fourteen Esther scrolls are showcased in the exhibition, along with decorative arts items such as tiles and firebacks featuring the popular heroine.

Frequently, 17th century Dutch women would pose for paintings of Esther while wearing contemporary Dutch fashion. Frederick explains to Art & Object that because the story of Esther is also a book of the Old Testament, this is not a case of appropriation but rather the Dutch engaging with Esther’s narrative by seeing their story in hers, as an artist’s way to “help the audience relate to the story.”

National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Purchased 1953, 6089

Rembrandt van Rijn, A Jewish Heroine [possibly Esther] from the Hebrew Bible, 1632–33, oil
on canvas, 43 × 37 1/8 in.

While Esther is featured in the art of other countries, it is the 16th century Dutch geopolitical background, along with the subsequent Jewish immigration to Amsterdam, that give rise to the scale and range of her appearances as she evolved into a symbol for the Protestant Dutch nation and their fight for freedom against Catholic Spain.

In 1566, tensions grew between Spain and their Spanish Netherlands territory, resulting in a series of iconoclastic riots that sparked the Eighty Years' War. “Angry Protestants take out their frustrations by removing pictures and sculptures– images from cathedrals– as a symbol of the differences between Catholics and Protestants,” explains Frederick, because Protestants considered the use of images for worship as bordering on idolatry.

Did this iconoclast contribute to Esther’s proliferation in art, given the Protestants had created a void for devotional images of a Divine Feminine archetype? At that time, the Netherlands did not have a queen to step into this role. Frederick agrees, adding, “In Catholic tradition, Esther is seen as a prefiguration of the Virgin Mary.” But for the Dutch, Esther becomes a type of localized Lady Liberty figurehead: the Maid of Holland. “Esther in the Netherlands taps into this need for an allegorical representation of the country,” Frederick explains. This figure is a personification of the Netherlands, symbolizing freedom and the ideal Dutch woman. 

The Leiden Collection, New York, GG-100

Geldorp Gortzius, Esther and Ahasuerus, 1612, oil on panel, 22 1/4 × 28 1/2 in.

After Amsterdam becomes the center of global trade controlled by the merchant class, an economic boom sparks European migration along religious lines. Immigrants were drawn to Amsterdam by opportunity, describes Frederick.  Dutch art helps them to form their identity and what kind of core principles they want to adopt, such as being community-oriented and civic-minded like Esther. She becomes what Frederick describes as “an analog for the Jewish immigrants,” while the Dutch see themselves as akin to the biblical Israelites– parallels made directly in political pamphlets such as those in the exhibition. 

In The Feast of Esther by Jan Lievens, dramatic lighting in the center of the intimate but tense feast table scene seems to come from Esther herself. A contemporary of Rembrandt, Lievens uses a bright oil palette of rosy pinks, golds, and light blues on sumptuous, embroidered fabrics, creating a surprisingly modern feel. 

Jewish Museum London, C 1973.4.2.4

Salom Italia, Esther Scroll, Amsterdam, 1640s, printed and hand-colored border,
handwritten text, ink, and gouache on parchment, scroll H. 4 in., carved ivory and silk roller,
H. 9 in.

The tightly cropped panoramic composition of Aert de Gelder’s painting, Esther and Mordecai, emphasizes the heroine leaning in towards her cousin, the light source glowing from the pages of their Purim transcription. Refreshingly, the artist shows Esther as a wise elder.

The small engraving, The Triumph of Mordecai, by Luca van Leiden is alive with excited movement despite the crowd of figures. Other highlights of the exhibition include the 17th century red embroidered Teba Cover used during Purim, which exudes the aura of a devotional item after centuries of use. An impressive Flemish tapestry from the early 1500s is on loan from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston– the next stop for this exhibition from August 6th, 2026 through January 18th, 2027.

“Esther's story, with its themes of… victory and religious persecution in particular, is so well positioned when the Dutch are seeking to solidify their own national identity, and I think that's why [her story] becomes so popular,” explains Frederick. “That's the core thesis of the exhibition. It's not just demonstrating how popular it was, but also why, at this moment, it takes on new significance for two very different populations in the same place, grappling with the same issue in different ways of freedom and persecution.”

The Book of Esther in the Age of Rembrandt will be on display at NCMA through March 8th, 2026, closing after Purim.

35.807582561456, -78.70461415

The Book of Esther in the Age of Rembrandt at the NCMA
Start Date:
October 2, 2025
End Date:
March 8, 2026
Venue:
North Carolina Museum of Art
About the Author

Amy Funderburk

Amy Funderburk is a professional artist and freelance arts writer based in Winston-Salem, NC, specializing in visionary works in which she explores the intersection of the physical with the more fluid, spiritual and emotional realms. She works out of the Sternberger Artists Center in Greensboro, NC, and maintains a blog, Drinking from the Well of Inspiration, to provide deeper insight into her creative process. Follow her on Youtube: @AmyFunderburkArtist and on Instagram: @AmyFunderburkArtist.

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