Esther before Ahasuerus

This textile depicts an Old Testament story, with the central characters dressed in period court costume of 17th-century England. In England during the 1600s a distinctive style of figurative embroidery emerged for creating small pictures and domestic objects, such as mirror covers, book covers, and small storage boxes. The images were often based on illustrated texts and engravings and were embroidered by girls and women, as well as professional male and female embroiderers. Needlework played an important role in portraying the ideal woman as brave, pious, chaste, and obedient. These traits represented feminine virtue as defined by 17th century political and religious beliefs; for example, Esther was a Biblical model of the modest wife who utilized intelligence, diplomacy, and the means required to achieve a righteous goal. In this story Queen Esther, with two attendants, kneels before her husband, King Ahasuerus, who gestures with his scepter and grants her permission to speak. By entering the King’s presence, Esther has risked her life in order to save her people, the Jews, from destruction. Esther tells Ahasuerus of his chief minister’s plot against them. In this version of the story, the chief minister is punished by hanging for his crime.