Tobia Ravà (Padova, 1959)
The Numbers of Esther
Venice, 2023 UV
catalyzation on aluminum, 80 × 80 cm
Ferrara, Museo Nazionale dell’Ebraismo Italiano e della Shoah
The idea is to partially recover the ancient image of Queen Esther frescoed by Andrea del Castagno around 1450. The image was reworked and catalyzed on aluminum with one previous work by Ravà, Jerusalem – La voce della storia (2017), including three metaphorical shifts: one in space, one in time, and one ideal. The ancient fresco (originally paint ed for the loggia of Villa Carducci at Legnaia, near Florence, then detached and now placed on canvas in the Uffizi) revolves around a biblical theme and bore the inscription “ESTER REGINA GENTIS SUE LIBERATRIX” at the bottom. It has now become a contemporary Jewish work, a “re-appropriation,” which is set and made “contemporary” in Jerusalem. The “reversal of fortunes” is meant to be akin to the condition of Israel, now struggling against the Amalek that resurfaces—but, ultimately, succumbs, as it does every time.
