The Triumph of Mordecai

Dutch School

Summary

A reproduction produced by the Vasari Society of a drawing from the early Dutch School. The drawing is circular in design. In the centre is a carriage containing a person wearing a crown. The carriage is emerging from an archway with a portcullis, and is led by four horses driven by a figure with a whip. There are buildings either side of the carriage, and people are looking out from the tall windows. There are further figures surrounding the scene, including two women wearing headdresses who appear to be conversing with each other in the foreground. Text from the accompanying booklet produced by the Vasari Society: "13. EARLY DUTCH SCHOOL (about 1480-90) THE TRIUMPH OF MORDECAI (?) Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Bequeathed to the University by Mr. Francis Douce, 1834. Pen and wash drawing in bistre on white paper. A design for glass-painting. Diameter: 22.2 cm. (8 3/4 in.). I am at a loss to suggest an interpretation of the subject, unless it be Mordecai the Jew, 'the man whom the king delighteth to honour', arrayed at the suggestion of Haman in the royal apparel, and wearing the crown royal upon his head (Esther vi. 7-11). But Mordecai ought to be riding on a horse led by Haman, instead of sitting in a wagon. This drawing has been attributed at Oxford, as I understand by Dr. Friedländer, to the Master of St. Severin. I cannot recognize in it any close affinity to the pictures of that Cologne master, though it bears some resemblance to the glass-paintings from his design reproduced by Schmitz, 'Die Glasgemälde des Kgl. Kunstgewerbemuseums in Berlin', Taf. 13, and Text, p. 54 (Abb. 87). It is much more closely allied to the drawing at Paris, Dülberg, 'Früh-Holländer in Paris', IV. 5, to the group of drawings put together by F. Winkler in Kunstchronik, N. F., XXXIII, 615, and the paintings of the Master of the 'Virgo inter Virgines'. It appears to me decidedly Dutch, not German, in character. There are several other drawings allied to this at Oxford, on one of which Douce recorded that it came from the Metz sale, 1801. C. D."