
Esther Preparing for Audience with the King - Charcoal
Artist's Statement: The woman shown in the charcoal below had as much wealth and status as was possible for any woman in 5th century B.C.E Persia. She is Esther, beautiful and beloved wife of Ahasuerus, the all-powerful king of the Persian Empire. But at the moment shown, Esther is tremulous with fear and weak from three days of fasting. She is about to risk death by approaching Ahasuerus without having been invited and further by revealing to him that she is a Jew. That s