The Book of Esther in the Age of Rembrandt

Now showing6 August 2026 – 18 January 2027$25

Dutch paintings, tapestries, Persian textiles and Jewish ceremonial objects trace how the biblical heroine Esther became a shared symbol for Jewish and Protestant communities in the 1600s Netherlands.

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On now All of October 2026

Jan Steen sets Esther's big confrontation at a drunken banquet, with smashed glasses everywhere and a king who looks wobbly in his chair. Jan Lievens paints the same feast as a jam-packed frame, and the Gardner hangs it in front of a rug from Isabella's own collection.

The show asks how a Purim heroine who hid her Jewish identity became a symbol for both Amsterdam's Jews and Dutch Protestants in the 1600s. You get paintings, a Gardner-owned Flemish tapestry, Persian textiles and a Hebrew Esther scroll, ending on the museum's own young Rembrandt self-portrait. It's the Gardner's first major show of 17th-century Dutch art.

The Boston Globe called it "a revelation". The Arts Fuse liked it too, with one quibble: the curators' link between Esther and the Virgin Mary. It's in the Hostetter Gallery, included in the $25 museum ticket, and free for everyone on Thursdays from 5 to 9pm.

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Jan Lievens's crowded feast hangs in front of a rug from Isabella's own collection. The Gardner's first major show of 17th-century Dutch art ends on its own Rembrandt, a self-portrait at 23; the Boston Globe called it "a revelation".

Look for

Rembrandt's Jewish Heroine
Look for a queen in a gold-embroidered red gown being preened by an attendant in a shadowed room; even its owner, the National Gallery of Canada, isn't sure she's Esther.
Jan Steen's banquet
The same royal confrontation played as a rowdy dinner party, with smashed glasses and a king who looks a drink past steady.
Aert de Gelder's Esther and Mordecai
A bejeweled Esther confers with her turbaned uncle, and the document in her hands splits the long canvas in two.
The Esther scroll
A parchment scroll lies partly unrolled in a vitrine, its Hebrew calligraphy set inside printed Corinthian columns and arches topped by pairs of lions.
Rembrandt at 23
The finale is the Gardner's own self-portrait: a fuzzy-chinned young painter in a feathered beret, lips parted as if about to interrupt.