Artus Wolfaerts (1581-1641), Esther’s Toilet in the Harem of Ahasuerus, c.1620, Oil on panel, 59.4 x 81 cm, Victoria & Albert Museum, London
Artus Wolffort takes a brief passage from the Book of Esther and translates it into a scene poised between the ornamental allegory of Antwerp Mannerism and the weight and warmth of emerging Baroque. In his Esther’s Toilet, sacred narrative becomes a painting of classical elegance, where frieze-like groupings, mythological emblems, and idealised bodies reveal a transitional style—still shaped by Mannerist taste for allegory, yet transformed by Baroque presence and sensual immediacy.
The story comes from Esther 2:8–17. After Vashti’s dismissal, King Ahasuerus of Persia gathers the most beautiful women of his empire. Esther, a Jewish orphan raised by her cousin Mordecai, is taken into the royal harem at Susa, assigned seven maids (v. 9) and placed under the care of Hegai, the custodian of the women. She passes through twelve months of preparation, six with oil of myrrh and six with perfumes and cosmetics (v. 12), before being presented to the king and chosen as queen.
Wolffort does not show the harem ritual directly. Instead, he imagines the period of preparation as a scene of beauty and refinement. The figures are idealised in body and gesture, the draperies arranged with antique grace, and the mood closer to allegory than to history. In this way he follows Antwerp workshop practice, where biblical stories were often translated into images that blended devotion with sensual appeal. The painting reflects a local taste for heroines such as Esther, Susanna, or the Magdalene, whose virtue was consistently expressed through ideals of physical beauty shaped by the language of antiquity.
Artus Wolfaerts (1581-1641), Esther’s Toilet in the Harem of Ahasuerus, c.1620, Oil on panel, 59.4 x 81 cm, Victoria& Albert Museum, London
The composition has no clear central figure; Esther is not singled out by gesture, placement, or narrative focus. A nude female figure, adopting the stance of the well-known antique sculpture commonly referred to as the Medici Venus and attended by servants, may represent Esther, although this identification remains uncertain. The seven maids described in the biblical text are shown in balanced, dynamic groupings, bathing or grooming, their arrangement frieze-like in the manner of Antwerp Mannerist design, yet their bodies possess a warmth and weight absent from the earlier generation. Nude male and female attendants heighten the atmosphere of refined sensuality and domestic spectacle.
The architecture includes three mythological figures—Diana, Venus with Cupid, and Saturn devouring one of his children—serving as symbolic glosses: Diana for chastity, Venus for erotic allure, and Saturn for destructive paternal power. Above, a depiction of the Judgement of Paris casts the event in terms of competition, selection, and feminine vulnerability. Esther is not yet the queen or saviour of her people but an anonymous figure within a system of selection and adornment, surrounded by symbols of both danger and virtue.
These layers of meaning reflect the Antwerp Mannerist love of allegory and the fusion of sacred with mythological themes. Yet Wolfaerts departs from the earlier model: the figures are more substantial, the space coherent, and the tone warmer and more immediate. His training with Otto van Veen appears in the classical models and emblematic detail, but Rubens’s influence is clear in the weight and presence of the bodies, pushing the work toward the Baroque. The composition’s success—produced in multiple versions for the open market—lay in this suspension between meanings: a sacred story retold in classical language, appealing equally to piety, sensuality, and learned taste.