Ahasverus condemning Esther
  • Hermann Weyer
  • Coburg 1596 - after 1619
  • Ahasverus condemning Esther, ca. 1614
  • Pen and black ink, with greyish-brown and yellow wash, partly heightened with white, on paper
  • collector’s mark JJS lower middle (not yet in Lugt), arcadian landscape on the verso
  • 163 × 189 mm

In an expert’s report, Christine Wolf identifies this biblical representation as part of the story of Esther at the court of Ahasverus told in the Old Testament. The two prisoners in the right foreground likely portray the condemned Bigthan and Teresh.

Weyer transformed at least one other scene from the Book of Esther in a second drawing with the same format and stylistic technique 1.

Christine Wolf also dates the Arcadian landscape in pen and black ink on the reverse side of the sheet – so typical of the artist – to the years 1614/1615 (Fig. 1). As we so often see with Weyer, mighty trees in the foreground frame various small buildings or bridges here, before the landscape carries off into the mountains in the background2.

  1. Christie’s Amsterdam, November 18th, 2005, lot 254 (ill.)
  2. Dr. Martin Moeller: Meisterzeichnungen, Hamburg 2003, cat. no. 1 (ill.)