Esther Scroll: Kaniel Megillat

Esther Scroll: Kaniel Megillat

Megillot are often magnificently illuminated scrolls from which the texts of the ketuvim, “Writings”, were and are read on feast days. They make up the third main part of the Tanakh. They include the Book of Esther, which tells the story of the deliverance of the Jews from genocide in the Persian Empire under Xerxes I (486-465 BC). Xerxes' Jewish wife Esther was able to convince the king to prevent the massacre. Purim commemorates the events that are attributed to and thanked for divine intervention. On the evening of the feast and the next morning, the Book of Esther is read from a Megillah. Unusually, the name of God is not written once in the text, so the Esther scrolls offered the rare opportunity to provide them with figurative and sumptuous illuminations.

Artistic Illumination

Nevertheless, the extensive illumination of Esther Megillot probably developed not before the Renaissance, with the most elaborate and lavishly illuminated scrolls being created in the 16th to 18th centuries. The custom of creating pictorial strips above and below the text columns, which could be designed in a great variety of manners, quickly became established. The individual text compartments were often framed and visually separated from each other by means of architectural framing, which created a clearer overview and stricter order.
This approach was also followed in the Kaniel Megillat. All 19 text columns are flanked by red and green, rusticated columns, which are connected to form a richly decorated arcature. Between the columns, above and below the text, arched panels are inserted, illustrating almost every scene described in the Book of Esther in rich colors. The last miniature then spans the arc to the time when the Megillah was created by showing contemporary Purim dancers joyfully celebrating the biblical events.

Mysterious Origins

Since there is no surviving colophon or other indication of the context in which the ornate scroll was created, the Kaniel Megillat continues to puzzle scholars to this day. As it exhibits stylistic features of both the Italian and Eastern European Megillah traditions of the 18th century, it is assumed to have been made in Vienna or Moravia at this time. However, it is equally conceivable that the scroll originated in Northern Europe, where these styles were also adopted as a result of wandering book artists and the accompanying cultural exchange processes in the 18th century. However, one thing is certain: the Kaniel Megillat is one of the most beautiful examples of the heyday of Esther scroll illumination.