Gallery
Susanna / susanna / chaosbeans / zlpjih5e9lgflzg2x0juhofxtzq19jec Leaked Nudes
Susanna and the Elders; Susanna seated nude on the edge of a basin, turning to look at two elders behind a fence to the right
The story of Susanna and the Elders is a dead cert ringer to meet both the serious religious themes and occasional nudity criteria. It’s a story of two dirty old men perving on a beautiful young woman while she bathes. They later try to blackmail her into having sex with them. Susannah turns the tables on them and they come to an unpleasant and sticky end. There are a number of scenes in this story that have dramatic interest but they are almost invariably ignored by artists. It’s the naked/nude Susanna bathing that captures everybody’s attention. It is interesting to compare the way that different artists, all men with the exception of Artemisia Gentileschi, have painted Susanna.
A large group of paintings focuses on the point in the story with the elders are watching nude Susanna and she is not aware of them. It is this point in the story that is favoured by Tintoretto.
Here Tintoretto paints Susanna being attended by her maids with the elders just visible in the top right hand corner of the painting. This allows Tintoretto to focus on the Rubenesque figure of Susanna who looks directly out at, and confronts, the viewer. The golden hue of the nude leads down to the red-gold of the dress of the woman who is attending Suzanna’s feet. These colours lead the viewer’s eye up the stairs to the top right-hand corner where the elders are lurking, their clothing a darker descant on the colour of the’ maids dress.
