Midrashic Tales in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Illustrated Esther Scrolls
Midrashic Tales in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Illustrated Esther Scrolls

Summary/Abstract: At least since the mid-16th century there was a tradition of decorating the Esther Scrolls. One version of such adornments were episodes referring to midrashic tales, used to complement the Biblical narrative,. Taking into account the number of surviving scrolls, such episodes are present in just a small proportion of them,. The purpose of the article is to discuss the preliminary findings of research into the presence of midrashic tales in scrolls from the 17th and 18th centuries in various Jewish communities. It is accompanied by a selection of graphic representations of the most popular of them. As can be seen, the most frequent ones are those referring to the story of Haman’s daughter who disgraced her father; in some scrolls this is the only scene referring to midrashim. In addition to her, in the illustrated megillot the reader can come across various presentations of the execution of Queen Vashti, references to stories of Jewish girls forces to work on a Sabbath, the angels’ interference with the course of the Purim narrative and about Haman’s sons felling trees in the palace gardens

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