| Susanna and the Elders | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Albrecht Altdorfer |
| Year | 1526 |
| Medium | oil on panel |
| Dimensions | 74.8 cm× 61.2 cm(29.4 in× 24.1 in) |
| Location | Alte Pinakothek, Munich |
Susanna and the Elders is an oil-on-wood painting by the German artist Albrecht Altdorfer, created in 1526 and now held in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich. The subject is the Old Testament story of Susanna bathing. [1]
The majority of artists who depicted the story of Susanna's bath used the opportunity to paint a female nude. Altdorfer has chosen a more secular approach which is the rare exception.
Altdorfer puts the main emphasis on the representation of the fairy-tale palace of Jehoiakim with extensive terraces and adjacent gardens. The cloisters, halls, and terraces are filled with people doing everything from talking to having fun and eating. Among these details, the artist placed various threads of the same story. On the left, in the distance, Susanna is walking to the pool to take a bath. On the same side, in the foreground, Susanna appears surrounded by her four maids, seated while washing her feet, and one of her maids combs her hair. On the left side, in the bushes, barely visible, are the two old men watching the girl's toilet.
On the right side of the canvas, Susanna in a red dress goes to the palace. She is holding a white lily in her hand, a symbol of innocence, here referring to Susanna, who remained chaste and did not succumb to the persuasion of the elders. At the right, the narrative concludes with the stoning of the elders as a punishment for their lie. The stoning scene is watched by onlookers from the windows. [2]
Albrecht Altdorfer was a German painter, engraver and architect of the Renaissance working in Regensburg, Bavaria. Along with Lucas Cranach the Elder and Wolf Huber he is regarded to be the main representative of the Danube School, setting biblical and historical subjects against landscape backgrounds of expressive colours. He is remarkable as one of the first artists to take an interest in landscape as an independent subject. As an artist also making small intricate engravings he is seen to belong to the Nuremberg Little Masters.
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The Battle of Alexander at Issus is a 1529 oil painting by the German artist Albrecht Altdorfer, a pioneer of landscape art and a founding member of the Danube school. The painting portrays the 333 BC Battle of Issus, in which Alexander the Great secured a decisive victory over Darius III of Persia and gained crucial leverage in his campaign against the Persian Empire. The painting is widely regarded as Altdorfer's masterpiece, and is one of the most famous examples of the type of Renaissance landscape painting known as the world landscape, which here reaches an unprecedented grandeur.
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Susanna and the Elders is a painting by the Dutch artist Rembrandt from the Baroque period. It is an oil painting on a Peltogyne panel completed in the year 1647. It depicts the story of Susanna, a Deuterocanonical text from the book of Daniel in the Bible. The painting is currently housed at the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin.
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Susanna and the Elders is one of several paintings on this theme executed by the Italian baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi. This version, painted in 1649, hangs in the Moravian Gallery in Brno, Czech Republic. It is signed with Gentileschi's signature and the date on the balustrade on the right.
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