The Golden Dagger of Ahasuerus

In today’s post, Howard Wallace examines the significance of the golden dagger in the biblical story of Esther. Howard writes: Arent De Gelder (1645-1727), a one-time student of Rembrandt, has well learned his master’s techniques. In his work King Ahasuerus condemning Haman, light shining from above highlights the Persian King Ahasuerus’s turban, his profile and necklace as well as a cup, oranges and the golden dagger he wields. Behind him to his right in the semi-darkness sit his favourite concubine, Esther, and to his left, Haman, his vizier. The cup and oranges hint at a private banquet, but clearly the king is not happy with Haman. The prominence of the dagger suggests Ahasuerus might be about to use it on Haman, but if we know the story, we know that is not the case. Revenge takes another direction. So why is the golden dagger highlighted?

De Gelder was a native of Dortrecht, born into an affluent Dordrecht family with connections to the Dutch East India Company. He worked in Dortrecht for most of his life apart from a two-year period under Rembrandt’s tutelage around 1660. He was involved in civic affairs and did not need artistic commissions to survive but painted for the aristocracy on occasion. He was primarily a history painter, occasionally doing portraits. He developed his own style but was heavily influenced by Rembrandt. Some have said he followed Rembrandt more closely than any other of the master’s pupils.

The scene in our painting comes from the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament book of Esther. Briefly, the story of Esther goes as follows. Ahasuerus was the Persian King from 486-464BCE. Ahasuerus was his Greek name. To the Persians he was Xerxes 1. In the story, Ahasuerus sought a harem from among all the virgins in his empire. Esther was a young Jewish girl taken to the king. She quickly becomes his favourite, although she never reveals to the king that she is Jewish. Her older cousin, Mordechai, follows her to the Persian court to watch out for her. Haman, second in charge in the empire, hates the Jewish people, especially Mordechai, and plots to enact a pogrom against the Jews. Mordechai learns of the plot and gets word to Esther who plans to save her people. Esther holds banquets for Ahasuerus and Haman and the king promises to give her whatever she wants. Just as Haman is about to seek the king’s permission to carry out his pogrom, Esther asks the king to save her and her people. The king is angry at whoever has instigated the planned pogrom. Esther reveals it is Haman, whom the king hangs, in an ironic touch, on the very gallows which had been constructed for Mordecai. Finally, the Jewish inhabitants take revenge on their enemies.

The Book of Esther was apparently popular among the Dutch in the 17^th century. Many Dutch identified with the Jews in the story in their struggle for political and religious freedom from Spain. It was popular among painters and de Gelder, himself, painted at least ten scenes from the Book of Esther in the 1680s.

The scene de Gelder paints is from the banquet held by Esther at the point where she reveals Haman’s plot to the king. De Gelder captures the emotions of the characters clearly with rage on the king’s face and despair on Haman’s. To understand the place of the dagger we need to go back earlier in the story. There we read in several places:

All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law – all alike are to be put to death. Only if the king holds out the golden sceptre to someone, may that person live. (Esth 4:11; cf. 5:2; 8:4)

In the painting Ahasuerus has his golden dagger in his left hand pointing over his right shoulder toward Esther. The dagger is not a threat to Haman but plays the role of the sceptre as mentioned earlier in the story. It indicates that the king receives Esther’s plea for herself and her people. She will live while Haman’s fate is sealed.

(As an aside at this point, in Edwin Long’s painting of Esther, the queen is pictured being dressed by her maids. Behind her is a doorway which leads to the inner court. She is about to enter that court uninvited, risking her life according to the law of entering the king’s presence. The rows of soldiers and the king fighting a mythic lion beast carved on the walls and in the doorway behind Esther are a reminder of the power and the threat to her life she is about to confront.)

It is likely that de Gelder had been inspired in this work by the very man whose other works are usually alongside his in the NGV. Rembrandt, in 1660 painted a scene of Ahasuerus and Haman at the feast of Esther, very similar to de Gelder’s. It resides in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow.

Of particular note in Rembrandt’s version is the use of the golden dagger pointing toward Esther. The fact that the scenes are reversed in the two works underlines the role of the dagger suggested above. Rembrandt had painted his picture 20 years before de Gelder’s work at about the time de Gelder was working in Rembrandt’s workshop. It is likely that the use of the golden dagger in the scene, an adaptation of the biblical story by Rembrandt, has been reemployed by his former student. On the other hand we should also note that de Gelder has put a lot more emotion into the scene than Rembrandt did in his earlier work. Anger on the part of the king and despair on Haman’s are not as clear if there at all in Rembrandt’s painting. Alternatively, we might imagine Rembrandt’s portrayal being at the moment when Esther begins putting her plea to the king, i.e. a little earlier than de Gelder’s scene. To the degree that de Gelder’s painting and Rembrandt’s earlier version relate to the biblical story itself, they both show that Rembrandt’s reading of the biblical text was detailed and insightful and that he was ready to bring together disparate elements of a story to probe the depths of both the biblical drama and its human players.

With the re-hang of art in the National Gallery of Victoria’s current Triennial Exhibition, de Gelder’s painting is now found in Faye Toogood’s ‘candlelight room’. In this setting, the dagger glints menacingly. Thank you, Howard, for explaining its importance in the story of Esther.