The Triumph of Mordecai

This panel was never meant to hang on a wall. Around 1475 in Florence it was set into the front of a cassone, one of the big decorated chests that held a bride's belongings and were given at a wedding. A set of such panels told the biblical story of Esther, who saved the Jews of Persia. They are now scattered between Ottawa, Paris, Chantilly and Rome. This one shows her kinsman Mordecai in triumph, riding while the enemy who had plotted against him is made to lead the horse on foot. Who actually painted it is still argued. The design is close to Botticelli, in whose workshop it was made, but much of the handling looks like his gifted young apprentice Filippino Lippi, and scholars have never fully settled how the two divided the work.