An Elaborately Hand-Illustrated Esther Scroll, Moshe Hanin, [Haifa]: 1997-1998

A beautifully hand-decorated megillah, signed “Hanin 4/6.”

In the present lot, Moshe Hanin, an artist born in Yugoslavia in 1941 who later moved to Haifa, has produced a masterful visual representation of the Purim story to accompany the text of the Esther scroll. The work’s decorative program, executed entirely by hand in black and sepia inks with crimson and gold highlights, consists of a series of illustrative panels supporting the megillah’s text columns. Above each column is a pediment featuring a pair of lions, eagles, or deer, and between columns is a roundel (supported and surmounted by a crown) containing a drawing either of Persian architectural elements or of a bird. In addition, the text is preceded and followed by larger illustrations of, respectively, a palace in Shushan above a scene of Haman leading Mordechai on horseback through the streets, and a scene of celebration above a depiction of Mordechai and Esther in a garden.

The panels beneath each text column feature the following illustrations: Vashti’s party, Vashti refusing to attend Ahasuerus’ party, women being led in a royal carriage to the palace, Esther being introduced to Ahasuerus, Mordechai being refused entry to the palace, Jews mourning the news of their impending doom, Ahasuerus extending the scepter to Esther, Ahasuerus listening to the reading of the book of records, Haman leading Mordechai on horseback through the streets, Haman approaching Esther on the bed, letters being sent throughout the kingdom on Mordechai's behalf, the Jews celebrating in the streets, Haman and his ten sons hanging, the Jews celebrating in the streets, costumed figures celebrating Purim, and Mordechai at a desk with pen and paper.

Physical Description

One scroll (16 1/2 x 175 3/8 in.; 418 x 4450 mm) on parchment; missing at least one letter and should be checked for kosher status by a professional scribe. Text written in Ashkenazic Beit yosef square script in black ink; arranged in 16 columns with 28 lines to a column on 5 membranes stitched together; each column up to the sons of Haman (except the first) begins with the word ha-melekh (the king); some pencil markings in margins, often numbering the columns. Extremely slight scattered staining; minor smudging of ink and wear to gold.

Literature

John Castagno, Jewish Artists: Signatures and Monograms: An International Directory (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2010), 192.