Art and the Bible © 2005 - 2020 artbible.info. Susanna and the Elders is one of several paintings on this theme executed by the Italian baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi. What is also beyond question is the skill with which Gentileschi made the painting. Yet it may be more appropriate to place Gentileschi’s artwork in its wider historical context: as responding to a marketplace whose taste was for dramatic narratives of heroines from the Bible or classical sources. As the daughter of the Tuscan artist Orazio Gentileschi, historians have long wondered if the painting had a helping-hand from her father, as a way of explaining its extraordinary competency. He cleverly separated them and asked each to describe the tree under which they apparently saw Susanna commit her adultery. He also shows how the old man asks Susanna to be quiet. Two elders from the community secretly observe her and between them plot to seduce her. A contemporary viewer of this work would almost certainly have been aware of the full story of Susanna. Guido Reni’s version, for instance, shows Susanna in more an equivocal pose, one of disquiet certainly, but also far less alarmed and fearful than the Gentileschi version. Since Susanna was married, the accusation would bring great shame to her and her family, and worse, would carry the penalty of death if found guilty. Painted in around 1610, Artemisia Gentileschi was just 17 years old when she made the work. It is signed with Gentileschi's signature, and the date, on the balustrade on the right. He blogs about culture, art and life at his website. The work is in the private collection of the Schönborn family. Susanna’s raised hands and splayed fingers, which are positioned in a self-defensive configuration, work in perfect concert with the position of her head, which is almost doubled-back in alarm. In their Schloss Weissenstein the family keeps a large collection of baroque art. Susanna didn’t relent. Susanna and the Elders (c. 1610) by Artemisia Gentileschi. Download here. Christopher P Jones is a writer and artist. In the case of Susanna and the Elders, there is no need for such uncertainty anyway, since it was painted a year before Tassi’s crime. Instead, she refused the elders and cried for help. It depicts the story of Susanna from the Book of Daniel. This version, painted in 1649, hangs in the Moravská galerie, Brno, Czech Republic. It is signed with Gentileschi's signature, and the date, on the balustrade on the right. The way that the two figures combine into a single form, covers the full width of the painting, adopting the broad shape of a triangle — a pyramid or a mountain, or something else heavy and stout — giving the distinct impression of oppressing the woman seated beneath them. She was 17 when she completed it. A free guide to the Essential Styles in Western Art History, plus updates and exclusive news about me and my writing? This version, painted in 1649, hangs in the Moravská galerie, Brno, Czech Republic. She became a popular subject in art because of these allegorical connotations, especially in Christian art, which made Susanna a symbol of the church — with obvious anti-Jewish undertones. This work is assumed to be Artemisia Gentileschi's first major painting. Artemisia’s version of Susanna and the Elders is especially effective in expressing the lascivious intent of the two elders and of the psychological response of Susanna. It is difficult to discount the effect of Gentileschi’s experience of rape on the art she subsequently produced. At the end of the trial, a disgraced Tassi was exiled from Rome, although no sentence was ever carried out. Indeed, many of Gentileschi’s paintings focus on strong female heroines from myth, allegory and the Bible. It currently hangs in the Schloss Weißenstein collection, in Pommersfelden, Germany. Two of her most well-known works are Judith Slaying Holofernes and Salome with the Head of Saint John the Baptist, both of which show female protagonists in barbarous acts against men. She was 17 when she completed it. Susanna was a fictional heroine whose symbolic appeal lay in the idea of innocent virtue eventually triumphing over evil. The elders carried out their threat and Susanna was arrested. Not only does the twisted posture show off the artist’s ability to represent the human figure in a complex yet realistic pose — replete with perfectly painted shadows — it also adds an extraordinary level emotional realism to the incident. The tension and apprehension depicted in Gentileschi’s painting would therefore have made the symbolism of innocent virtue triumphing over evil all the more gripping. The two elders each described different trees; and so, with this conflicting evidence, Susanna’s innocence was proved. He has his hand on the other’s shoulder. He also shows how the old man asks Susanna to be quiet. Undoubtedly, the time she spent in her father’s workshop provided an important apprenticeship for the young artist. Source Wikimedia Commons. The two elders, in their crouched, shadowy form, are expertly contrasted with the light-filled Susanna. She raises her hands in a defensive posture, illustrating without ambiguity that their attentions are unwanted and intrusive. This scene is recognisable in the history of art as being about Susanna and the Elders, as told in the Book of Daniel. They would have known that her strength of character in the face of false accusations eventually resulted — with Daniel’s help — in her innocence being proved. Perhaps she was inspired by Rubens' painting on the story of Susanna. Moreover, the realism of her paintings compared to the more stylised technique of her father suggest that this work belonged to her entirely. The case went to trial and detailed court records exist: it was a complicated situation, owing to the fact that Gentileschi and Tassi continued to have relations after the event, and also to the contemporary expectation of Gentileschi having been a virgin prior to the rape, without which the charges could not have been pressed. Her name in Hebrew means a lily, the symbol of purity. They threaten the unsuspecting Susanna, telling her that unless she sleeps with them they will swear in public that they’d seen her in an act of adultery with a young man. They are clearly in collusion as they loom over the bathing woman on the other side of the wall. Her twisted posture is especially effective in dramatising the very moment the old men appear to her. Unlike her earlier versions of the painting, Gentileschi here follows "a far more traditional interpretation", with Susanna looking heavenward as if to ask for divine assistance in fighting off the elders. Oil on canvas. SUKI Magazine: COVID-19 Stories and Responses, A Distinct Vision — A Look at Renaissance Master Sandro Botticelli, How To Serve All Parts Of The Art Ecosystem, From Artist To Institution, The Birth, Death, and Resurrection of the Author. Their postures are threatening and lascivious. She was about to be put to death when Daniel — a noble Jewish youth of Jerusalem — interrupted and proceeded to cross-examine the two elders. However, looking across Artemisia’s entire painting career, she produced consistently high-quality works that prove her talents were well established even from such a young age. Readings of Gentileschi’s art have been strongly influenced by these events, with many historians choosing to interpret her art as a proto-feminist response to her experiences. Susanna and the Elders is one of several paintings on this theme executed by the Italian baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi. Much of Gentileschi’s reputation, particularly in more recent years, has been shaped by the rape she endured as a teenager in 1611, at the hands of another artist, Agostino Tassi. Schloss Weißenstein collection, Pommersfelden, Germany. Susanna and the Elders is a 1610-1 painting by the Italian artist Artemisia Gentileschi. One of the men whispers into the other’s ear. It may be fair to say that Artemisia Gentileschi’s interpretation of the story gained from her being a woman, enabling her to depict a more vivid scene of sexual advance than her male counterparts were capable of imagining. The painting shows two men leering over a wall, spying and conniving over a naked woman. home » art » work by Artemisia Gentileschi, oil on canvas (170 × 121 cm) — 1610 Many other artists who painted the same subject gave a more ambiguous reading of Susanna’s reaction — one that perhaps enabled the (male) viewer to look upon the naked woman in the painting without the dubious sensation of participating in the elders’ malign advances. When Susanna sends her maids away and she is alone, the two lecherous men appear. The tale is set in Babylon during the Jewish exile and tells of Susanna taking a bath in her private garden. The victim of their scheming is Susanna. The painting tells the story of Susanna from the Book of Daniel; after having a bath in her garden, Susanna is blackmailed by two older men who threaten her with claims of promiscuity unless she has sex with them. [1], "Susanna and the Elders" Artemisia Gentileschi, Brno, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Self-Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Saint Januarius in the Amphitheatre at Pozzuoli, Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Susanna_and_the_Elders_(Artemisia_Gentileschi,_Brno)&oldid=963980614, Paintings depicting Susanna and the Elders, Articles needing additional references from April 2017, All articles needing additional references, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 22 June 2020, at 22:12. Schloss Weissenstein, Pommersfelden. Perhaps she was inspired by Rubens' painting on the story of Susanna. This work is assumed to be Artemisia Gentileschi's first major painting.
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