Ahasuerus Chooses Esther

This Ahasuerus Chooses Esther from circa 1480 at the Condé Museum depicts the moment when the Persian king selects the Jewish girl Esther from the assembled candidates to be his queen—the beginning of the narrative that would lead to her saving her people from Haman's genocide. The subject was unusual in Florentine painting, less common than the later dramatic scenes of Esther's intercession and Haman's fall. Botticelli renders the scene with characteristic architectural precision and elegant figure grouping. The Condé Museum, in the château of Chantilly assembled by the duc d'Aumale, holds one of France's most important collections of early Italian painting, accumulated with particular focus on Florentine and Sienese masters.

The royal selection scene is staged with Botticelli's characteristic compositional elegance, the contrasting figures of king and maiden rendered with the refined drawing and rich color of his mid-career style.