Focus on this artwork and explore the The incident.
The account of the episode including Esther's fainting comes only from the Greek additions to the Book of Esther, or 
"Rest of Esther", which are Deuterocanonical books, regarded as canonical by the Catholic Church, though relegated to the Biblical apocrypha by Protestant churches.  In the Hebrew Bible and Protestant bibles there is no fainting in the Book of Esther; in the latter the additions made in the Septuagint are relegated to the Rest of Esther placed at the end of the book.  The decree at the Catholic Council of Trent confirming their canonical status was passed in April 1546, around the time this painting is thought to have been made, which may have a bearing on the choice of subject. The painting shows the moment from Chapter 9:6–8, when Esther goes to see her husband, King Ahasuerus of Persia (often identified as the historical Xerxes I), to intercede for the Jewish people; going into the inner royal court uninvited is punishable by death:Esther's faint had not often been depicted in art before Tintoretto, although for example it is shown in the series of cassone scenes of the Life of Esther by Sandro Botticelli, from the 1470s.  Esther was regarded in Catholic theology as a typological forerunner of the Virgin Mary; among other reasons, because both acted as intercessors, and because Esther being allowed an exception to the strict Persian law on uninvited entry to the king's presence was seen as paralleling the unique Immaculate Conception of Mary.  Contemporary viewers would probably have recognised a similarity between the faint and the motif of the Swoon of the Virgin, which was very common in depictions of the Crucifixion of Jesus. The fainting became a much more popular subject in the Baroque painting of the following century, with examples including the Esther Before Ahasuerus by Artemisia Gentileschi.
Artemisia Gentileschi Ahasuerus Septuagint Life of Esther Esther Tintoretto Immaculate Conception Sandro Botticelli cassone Hebrew Bible Council of Trent Deuterocanonical books Book of Esther Greek additions Protestant bible Xerxes I typological Crucifixion of Jesus Virgin Mary Biblical apocrypha Swoon of the Virgin