MEGILATH ESTHER.

The artist cleverly references historical eras and cultural biases as he playfully tells the story of Esther in a pictorial narrative, column by columns, balanced with the text alongside. While each column is framed by stylized Royal Persian architecture, the register below the text features the Purim characters and allows the story to unfold. Throughout, the artist is particularly original in regard to the costuming of all the characters in the Esther story. Amusingly Mordechai and the Jewish male characters are dressed in contemporary Chassidic garb, including shtreimels and long black frocks; the young boys in curly payoth, yarmulkes and suspenders. One interesting pictorial interpretation - when ordered to prostrate before Haman, Mordechai demurs and is featured here displaying the sole of his shoe, a great insult in the Near East. The females who come to King Ahashveirosh’s court appear to suitably represent the nations of the world, in bold colors, clad in fashionably high heels, glamorous coifs and costumes distinctly Dutch, Oriental, etc., They are followed by a modest, sobbing Esther wearing a somber blue house-coat and snood hair covering - typical fare more likely worn in contemporary Williamsburg. The soldiers here appear in Renaissance-era uniforms, the guests at the king’s feast are each adorned in a red fez and Evil Haman is outfitted in Ottoman colors with a pantomine-like imperial mustache.