Esther before Ahasuerus

This large canvas came out of Venice around 1555, and scholars still argue over whose hand made it: the young Veronese, barely into his twenties, or his workshop, or a close imitator copying his manner a decade later. The subject is a moment of real danger from the Book of Esther. Esther, the Jewish queen of Persia, approaches King Ahasuerus unsummoned to plead for her people, an act that by law could cost her life if the king did not extend his favour. Veronese, or whoever painted it, stages it as Venetian theatre, with a broad marble staircase and figures in rich 16th-century dress rather than anything ancient or Persian. That habit of dressing scripture in contemporary Venice runs through all his banquet pictures. The work carries the Uffizi inventory number 912.