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Lot Essay
This scene depicts the dramatic climax of the Old Testament Book of Esther, which is celebrated annually in the Jewish festival of Purim. In the story, the machinations of a high-ranking official at the court of the Persian King Xerxes are foiled by Esther, the king’s consort - unbeknown to the King a Jew - and her cousin Mordecai. Mordecai temporarily wins the favour of the King when he exposes a plot against him, but later falls foul of Haman, the King’s chief advisor, by refusing to pay homage to him, in obedience to the Biblical injunction to have no other gods but Yahweh. In revenge, Haman persuades the King to issue an edict authorizing the annihilation of all Jews throughout the empire. The tables are turned when the King remembers Mordecai’s loyalty and asks Haman how he should be honoured. Haman, thinking the King is referring to him, answers: `
Let the royal apparel be brought which the king useth to wear, and the horse that the king rideth upon, and the crown royal which is set upon his head: And let this apparel and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king's most noble princes, that they may array the man withal whom the king delighteth to honour, and bring him on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaim before him, Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honour’ (Esther 6: v 8-9).
It is this moment of glorious comeuppance which Rembrandt depicts - the elderly Mordecai mounted on the King’s own horse, bedecked in royal regalia, being led through a crowded street by his arch-enemy, the humiliated and soon to be executed Haman. They are observed by the King and Queen from a balcony above a bustling crowd of onlookers who are bowing, doffing caps, or simply gawping at the spectacle, set against an impressive architectural backdrop. The densely figured composition, full of drama and incidental detail, have parallels with the monumental painting of The Night Watch, 1639-1642, on which Rembrandt was working at this time. It also anticipates Christ healing the sick ‘The Hundred Guilder Print’, 1648 (see lot 45), perhaps the artist’s most complex arrangement in etching. The Triumph of Mordecai is also significant as the first instance in which Rembrandt uses drypoint not merely as an embellishment but as an integral part of the etching’s composition, to create the richly burred shadows to the left of Mordecai and Haman, seen to great effect in this very fine impression.
Let the royal apparel be brought which the king useth to wear, and the horse that the king rideth upon, and the crown royal which is set upon his head: And let this apparel and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king's most noble princes, that they may array the man withal whom the king delighteth to honour, and bring him on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaim before him, Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honour’ (Esther 6: v 8-9).
It is this moment of glorious comeuppance which Rembrandt depicts - the elderly Mordecai mounted on the King’s own horse, bedecked in royal regalia, being led through a crowded street by his arch-enemy, the humiliated and soon to be executed Haman. They are observed by the King and Queen from a balcony above a bustling crowd of onlookers who are bowing, doffing caps, or simply gawping at the spectacle, set against an impressive architectural backdrop. The densely figured composition, full of drama and incidental detail, have parallels with the monumental painting of The Night Watch, 1639-1642, on which Rembrandt was working at this time. It also anticipates Christ healing the sick ‘The Hundred Guilder Print’, 1648 (see lot 45), perhaps the artist’s most complex arrangement in etching. The Triumph of Mordecai is also significant as the first instance in which Rembrandt uses drypoint not merely as an embellishment but as an integral part of the etching’s composition, to create the richly burred shadows to the left of Mordecai and Haman, seen to great effect in this very fine impression.