RUBENS, Peter Paul
(b. 1577, Siegen, d. 1640, Antwerpen)

Esther before Ahasuerus

1620
Oil on wood, 33 x 32 cm
Akademie der bildenden Künste, Vienna

This sketch was one of the first in a series of thirty-nine preparatory studies for the ceiling paintings in the Jesuit church St Charles Borromeo in Antwerp. In the scene Esther before Ahasuerus, Rubens copied Veronese's ceiling painting in San Sebastiano, Venice.