The name Ahasuerus is equivalent to the Greek name Xerxes, both deriving from the Old Persian language Xšayārša.
In 1842 Oesterley became a full professor of art, and in 1844, after finishing the painting Christus and Ahasuerus, he was appointed court painter of the Kingdom of Hanover.
Among his central themes was the fundamental question of good and evil, which he examined through such figures as the man who was freed instead of Jesus, Barabbas; and the Persian King, Ahasuerus.
She contents that similarities between Luther's anti-Jewish writings, especially On the Jews and Their Lies, and modern anti-Semitism are no coincidence, because they derived from a common history of Judenhass (Jew-hatred), which she traces back to the biblical Haman's advice to Ahasuerus.
In 1760 Ahasuerus and Haman at the Feast of Esther was sold as number 45 at an auction, listed as coming from Nicolaes Geelvinck, and organized after the death of Gerard Hoet, a minor painter but important collector in The Hague.
As Artaxerxes is believed to be the inspiration for King Ahasuerus in the story of Purim, Artabanus may have been the inspiration for Haman in the same story.