# The Banquet of Esther and Ahasuerus [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [VICTORS, Jan]() - Date: 1651-1700 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 170 x 230 cm ## Commentary Calvinist collectors in the Dutch Republic were often especially interested in Old Testament paintings, as Calvin has advocated careful study of the biblical narrative. Jan Victors, who painted mostly Old Testament scenes, apparently made them primarily for Calvinist patrons. His large pictures of Old Testament subjects are distinctly related to Rembrandt's biblical pictures done after the mid-thirties; his paintings of tradesmen and rural genre scenes are more personal. In this scene the Jewish heroine Esther, wife of the Persian King Ahasuerus, notifies her husband of the plans of his advisor Haman, here seen at left, who has schemed to massacre the Jews in the Persian empire. ## Related artworks - [Abraham's Parting from the Family of Lot]() - [Esau Sells Jacob the Right of Seniority for a Bowl of Lentils]() - [Esther and Haman before Ahasuerus]() - [Ferryboat]() - [Hannah Giving Her Son Samuel to the Priest]() - [Jacob Being Shown Joseph's Robe]() - [Jacob Despairing over Joseph's Robes]() - [Market Scene with a Quack at his Stall]() - [Peasants' Meal at the Stables]() - [Portrait of a Man as a Turkish Prince]() - [Ruth Swearing her Allegiance to Naomi]() - [Town Folk Coming to the Country]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()