2-587-839 - © Fine Art Images/Heritage Images

'Esther', 19th century. Esther (born Hadassah), was a woman in the Hebrew Bible, the queen of Ahasuerus and the heroine of the Biblical Book of Esther which is named after her. As a result of Esther's intervention and influence, Persian Jews lived in Persia (modern Iran) for 2400 years thereafter. Esther's husband Ahasuerus followed in the footsteps of his maternal grandfather, Cyrus the Great, in showing mercy to the Jews of Persia: Cyrus had decreed an end to the Babylonian captivity of the Jews upon his conquest of Babylon in 527 BC. Found in the collection of the State A Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow.