GENTILESCHI, Artemisia
(b. 1593, Roma, d. ca. 1653, Napoli)

Susanna and the Elders

1610
Oil on canvas, 170 x 121 cm
Schloss Weissenstein, Pommersfelden

Rubens invented a new type of scene which he defined as neither sacred nor profane, although taken from the Holy Scriptures. Typical examples are the story of Hagar or the Susanna and the Elders.

In this version of the subject by Artemisia Gentileschi, the gesture of one of the Elders, who silences Susanna by raising his finger to his lips, comes from the painting of the same subject by Rubens (Galleria Borghese, Rome).




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