Esther before Ahasuerus

This 1733 Esther before Ahasuerus at the National Gallery depicts the dramatic moment when the Jewish queen risks death by approaching the Persian king without being summoned to plead for her people's survival. The book of Esther's narrative of female courage in the service of communal survival gave painters a subject that combined political drama with personal heroism. Ricci's late work brings his accumulated technical mastery — the warm, luminous palette, the fluid figure style, the confident spatial organization of multiple figures — to a subject that required both the grandeur appropriate to a royal court scene and the psychological intimacy of a personal confrontation between husband and wife.

The palatial interior provides a grand setting for the dramatic encounter, Ricci rendering the rich costumes and architectural details with the luminous palette and fluid technique of his late mature style.