Esther Crowned by Ahasuerus
by VERONESE, Paolo, Oil on canvas, 450 x 370 cm
The picture shows one of the three large paintings on the ceiling of the nave of the church of San Sebastiano: Esther Crowned by Ahasuerus (rectangular, in the centre), The Triumph of Mordecai (oval), and The Banishment of Vashti (oval).
The strict diagonal composition offers a wealth of narrative detail, and like all other pictures in the series, takes into account the di sotto in su angle of vision, with its foreshortened perspectives, which pervades the space. The pictorial architecture provides a formal link between the pictorial fields. Columns, cornice and roof terraces form a continuous axis running through all three pictorial fields.
Technically, the light reflections on Haman’s armour are particularly delicate: on closer inspection, they break up into spots of paint.