''Susanna and the Elders'' is a painting by the Italian artist

Artemisia Gentileschi Artemisia Lomi or Artemisia Gentileschi (, ; 8 July 1593) was an Italian Baroque painter. Gentileschi is considered among the most accomplished seventeenth-century artists, initially working in the style of Caravaggio. She was producing profess ...

. It is signed with Gentileschi's name and the date of 1622. The painting is in the collection at

Burghley House Burghley House () is a grand sixteenth-century English country house near Stamford, Lincolnshire. It is a leading example of the Elizabethan prodigy house, built and still lived in by the Cecil family. The exterior largely retains its Elizabet ...

near

Stamford, Lincolnshire Stamford is a town and civil parish in the South Kesteven District of Lincolnshire, England. The population at the 2011 census was 19,701 and estimated at 20,645 in 2019. The town has 17th- and 18th-century stone buildings, older timber-framed ...

, England. Gentileschi depicted the story of Susanna from the

Book of Daniel The Book of Daniel is a 2nd-century BC biblical apocalypse with a 6th century BC setting. Ostensibly "an account of the activities and visions of Daniel, a noble Jew exiled at Babylon", it combines a prophecy of history with an eschatology (a ...

in several paintings. Similar compositions of Susanna and the Elders are at

Pommersfelden Pommersfelden is a community in the Upper Franconian district of Bamberg in Germany. Geography The community lies north of Höchstadt an der Aisch on the river Reiche Ebrach. Constituent communities The community of Pommersfelden is subdivided ...

from 1610, at

Brno Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...

dated 1649, and

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

from 1652. A copy of the Burghley version is in the

Nottingham Castle Museum Nottingham Castle is a Stuart Restoration-era ducal mansion in Nottingham, England, built on the site of a Norman castle built starting in 1068, and added to extensively through the medieval period, when it was an important royal fortress and ...

collection.

Description

A realistically proportioned nude woman is shown sitting at the edge of a pool, beside a small fountain. Leaning over the wall behind her are two older men leering at her; her distress at this invasion is evident by her upward-cast eyes and an attempt to cover herself with her arms and her

chemise A chemise or shift is a classic smock, or a modern type of women's undergarment or dress. Historically, a chemise was a simple garment worn next to the skin to protect clothing from sweat and body oils, the precursor to the modern shirts commonl ...

. The painting is signed "ARTEMITIA GENTILESCHI LOMI" on the stone wall above her knees.

Gentileschi's interpretation

The figure's arms are arranged in the pose known as ''

Venus pudica Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury (planet), Mercury) appears in Ear ...

'', best illustrated by the classical figure of the ''

Crouching Venus :''This article discusses the type itself: see links within it for specific instances of the type.'' The ''Crouching Venus'' is a Hellenistic model of Venus surprised at her bath. Venus crouches with her right knee close to the ground, turns he ...

''. The rendering is more traditional than her 1610 ''Susannah'', given both her artistic development as well as the influence of an etching of the same subject by

Annibale Carracci Annibale Carracci (; November 3, 1560 – July 15, 1609) was an Italian painter and instructor, active in Bologna and later in Rome. Along with his brother and cousin, Annibale was one of the progenitors, if not founders of a leading strand of th ...

. The addition of more landscape features as compared to that earlier version further signals the influence of Bolognese artists such as

Guercino Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (February 8, 1591 – December 22, 1666),Miller, 1964 better known as Guercino, or il Guercino , was an Italian Baroque painter and draftsman from Cento in the Emilia region, who was active in Rome and Bologna. The vig ...

, who had arrived in Rome in the wake of the newly elected Bolognese pope.

History

The work was painted in 1622, two years after Gentileschi returned to Rome after having started her career as an independent artist in Florence. The stylistic differences from her 1610 version of the same subject had led this 1622 work to initially be attributed to

Caravaggio Michelangelo Merisi (Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi) da Caravaggio, known as simply Caravaggio (, , ; 29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610), was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the final four years of hi ...

. The painting was loaned to the Gentileschi exhibition that was held at the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director o ...

in London in 2020, but had been postponed because of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

Provenance

The work may have been commissioned by papal nephew Cardinal

Ludovico Ludovisi Ludovico Ludovisi (22 or 27 October 1595 – 18 November 1632) was an Italian Cardinal (Catholic Church), cardinal and statesman of the Roman Catholic Church. He was an art connoisseur who formed a famous collection of antiquities, housed at the ...

, which may explain the Bolognese style of the depiction. The painting has been listed as being in the

Marquess of Exeter Marquess of Exeter is a title that has been created twice, once in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The first creation came in the Peerage of England in 1525 for Henry Courtenay, 2nd Earl of Devon. For more ...

's family collection since at least the 1700s. It was listed in the 1763 Burghley inventory and was presumably acquired by

Brownlow Cecil, 9th Earl of Exeter Brownlow Cecil, 9th Earl of Exeter (21 September 1725 – 26 December 1793), known as Lord Burghley from 1725 to 1754, was a British peer and Member of Parliament. Life Exeter was the eldest son of Brownlow Cecil, 8th Earl of Exeter, and Hannah S ...

(1725 – 1793) while on the

Grand Tour The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tuto ...

References

{{Artemisia Gentileschi 1610 paintings Paintings by Artemisia Gentileschi Gentileschi

Description

Gentileschi's interpretation

History

Provenance

See also

References