Wat een paard ons kan vertellen. Nieuw licht op een schilderij van Pieter Lastman uit 1617

Lastmans' Triumph of Mordechai (1617) is traditionally seen as an Old Testamentic scene that shows how the Hebrews keep faith in their God and their religious culture, even in exile. Lastman chose for his representation of the story a horse with long mane for Mordechai to ride on. The same horse can be seen on a painting by Pauwels van Hillegaert and Jacob de Gheyn II. In these paintings, it is depicted as the horse of the Austrian warlord that was defeated bij Maurits, Dutch Prince of Orange. Therefore we have to reinteprate the painting by Lastman also as the victory of the Calvinistic Protestant over the Catholic Spanishrulers in The Netherlands.