Susanna and the Elders in art
Susanna and the Elders is an Old Testament story of a woman falsely accused of adultery after she refuses two men who, after discovering one another in the act of spying on her while she bathes, conspire to blackmail her for sex.
Modern scholars explain this by pointing out the appeal to male artists and patrons of a portrayal of a naked woman watched by sexually aroused clothed men.
Appearing suddenly, the young Daniel objects to the verdict and insists on cross-examining the two men separately, asking them under what kind of tree the adulterers were having sex.
She is one of a group of individuals from the Old Testament – along with Noah, Abraham and Isaac, Moses, Daniel and the Three Hebrew Children, and Jonah – invoked in the Christian commendatio animae (commendation of souls), a third-century prayer said over the dying, which is still incorporated in the Roman Catholic liturgy.
[1] These same figures appear on catacomb walls and marble sarcophagi from the late third century onward, with their hands lifted in prayer (orant) because they are in peril so great that only the intervention of God can save them.
Despite its small size (4-1/2 inches in diameter), it is carved with eight vignettes of the story of Susanna, with inscriptions from the Latin Vulgate Bible accompanying each scene.
The figures are in the School of Reims style found in works commissioned by Bishop Ebbo of that city, such as the famous Utrecht Psalter.
In the fifteenth century, however, although some artists continued to depict her in modest attire, an increasing number of images portray her with her dress pulled above her knees or completely naked.
[11]: 149–150 Garrard points out that it is significant that portrayals of The Judgement of Daniel and The Stoning of the Elders, the other two major vignettes from this story, are comparatively rare in art.
[11]: 153 Instead of focussing on truth discovered or justice meted out, nearly all portrayals focus on the naked or partially-naked woman being watched or importuned by sexually aroused fully-clothed men.
[11]: 150 Portrayals of the scene during this period typically emphasized the elders' point of view—the voyeurism they enjoyed, their anticipation of sex—and did not address Susanna's distress except to occasionally picture her with her eyes cast to heaven in a plea for help.
[11]: 7 Treatments in the Baroque period were more likely to emphasize the point of view of Susanna, who is uncomfortable with or objects to being watched, while others continued to concentrate on the male gaze.
[11] Susanna and the Elders, like many scenes featuring naked women and clothed men, was a popular subject, and many artists created multiple paintings during their careers.
[11][15][13][16][17] Rubens in his late 1630s portrayal places Susanna under an apple tree rather than a mastic or oak, a nod to Eve, the garden of Eden, and resisting, according to Mark Leach, "supreme temptation"; according to Garrard, the implication by both Leach and Rubens is that Susanna had to be very strong-willed indeed to resist the overwhelming attraction of being coerced into sex by two elderly lechers.
[14]: 298 The painting is considered one of the earliest to portray Susanna as clearly distressed at being watched; according to Christiansen and Mann, "no other artist had interpreted the psychological dimension" of the story.
[14]: 298 Garrard points out that the Elder on the left in her painting is a "thick-haired younger man", which was "highly unusual in Susanna pictures"; Tassi was in his thirties at the time of the rape.
[18] Gina Siciliano points out that the elders "bore the dark curls of Agostino Tassi and the balding sleaziness of Cosimo Quorli.
[14]: 298–299 Gentileschi eventually produced at least three more paintings depicting the incident, typically also showing Susanna as clearly distressed, along with one other possibility which has since been lost and may be the work of Gianfranco Loredan.
[20] Susanna and the Elders, like many biblical or mythological stories of women who for whatever reason were at some point naked, was a frequent subject of paintings of nudes.
