The work is one of four sculptures of Roman virgin martyrs commissioned by the Bakers' Guild to decorate the church of Santa Maria di Loreto in Rome.

"[2] With its clinging drapery juxtaposed to her modest gaze and clothing, Duquesnoy's Santa Susanna was considered by contemporaries an "admixture of eroticism and modesty.

In the early 18th century, Domenico de Rossi's engraving of the statue helped to initially increase its celebrity, which was consolidated internationally when a copy by Coustou was completed and sent to the Paris' academy at the Louvre in 1739.

[7][2] The Roman Saint Susanna, like the other saints in San Maria di Loreto a symbol of Christian chastity and beauty, was probably chosen as an emblem of faith and virtue through which inspire the young unmarried Roman women assisted by the confraternity, whose work of charity included the annual provision of dowries to enable daughters of poor bakers to marry or to enter convent.

Mariette Fransolet, like the early biographers, believed that Pope Urban VIII himself sought a design from Duquesnoy, later approving the Fleming's model at the Congregazione della Fabbrica of Saint Peter's meeting in May 1628.

[2] Bellori reports that while installing the St. Susanna's metal palm, Duquesnoy had an attack of vertigo, fell from the ladder and almost lost his life.

[2] In spite of the restrained coiffure of St. Susanna and her full cheeks, her face was modeled by Duquesnoy upon the features of Venus, the goddess of beauty and eroticism.

[2] This is evinced in her heart-shaped face, dimpled chin and slightly open mouth; the elongated nose and her wide-set, almond shaped eyes.

"[2] Through her physiognomy, too, Duquesnoy was therefore able to create an original composition that successfully expressed the beauty, erotic appeal and chastity of the virgin martyr.

[2][1] Duquesnoy, as expressed in his maniera greca theory, believed that the best ancient draped statues were those that "remained closest to the purity of the Greek nude through the use of thin, body-revealing drapery.

Duquesnoy "went well beyond simple imitation to recombine and transform his sources in accordance with his understanding of the verisimilitude, emotive power, and material refinement of ancient Greek art.

[2] A copy in marble by Guillaume Coustou was completed and sent to Paris in 1739, where it was installed in the Hall of Antiquities of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture at the Louvre.

[2] This gave the statue first international recognition, precipitating a surge of interest for the latter, which over the next decades was included in the canon of exemplary sculptures in virtually all major art academies in Europe.

A few years later, Flemish sculptor Pierre-François Le Roy paid homage to the St. Susanna in his Saint Catherine, which he produced for the Royal Chateau of Laeken in Brussels.

[2] Due to the growing popularity of the Saint Susanna and the damage it suffered during its unfortunate 1753 casting by Farsetti, the confraternity decided to move the statue to the altar of the Chapel of the Magi, where it was accessible to the public, who flocked there to venerate it.

Righetti had been commissioned by Boston-native art collector and banker Henry Hope to cast twelve lead-copies of the most prominent sculptures in Rome, which were to be installed in his Neoclassical Villa Welgelegen in Haarlem.

[7][2] According to his scholar Estelle Lingo, this opus was the manifesto of Duquesnoy's gran maniera greca, an imaginative vision based on his own perception of ancient Greek sculpture, in which the latter was associated with slenderness, subtle contours, nudity or, among clothed statues, body-disclosing drapery.

Winckelmann, writing under the influence of Duquesnoy's concepts a hundred years later, added: "and a noble simplicity and quiet grandeur, both in posture and expression.