Feast of Esther, 1660 by Rembrandt

Rembrandt started featuring Old Testament sinner in his late work. Haman, the malevolent protagonist of the Book of Esther is the subject of Feast of Esther which Rembrandt created around 1660.

The story is from Esther 6-7 and Josephus's Jewish Antiquities XI, 6, 10-II. Unbeknown to the Persian king Ahasuerus, his wife Esther is a Jewess and his favourite, Haman, is plotting a massacre of all the Jews in the king's empire, incited by a hatred of Esther's step-father Mordecai. When the king learns that Mordecai has foiled an attempt on his life, he orders Haman to dress him in royal attire and lead him in triumph through the streets, neither of them realizing their sudden change of fortune. But when Esther invites Haman and the king to a banquet all is revealed. The queen informs Ahasuerus of Haman's plot against her people, whereupon he is disgraced and the king orders him hanged on the gallows that Haman had prepared for Mordecai.