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Description: | Susannah and the Elders is a story about the young prophet Daniel's powers of judgement, told not in the main part of the Book of Daniel but in the Apocypha (The History of Susannah). The virtuous Susannah was watched by two elders of the community as she bathed in the fountain of a secluded and enclosed garden. They tried to persuade her to sleep with them and accused her of adultery when she refused. Condemned to death, Susannah appealed to God and the young Daniel was able to prove the Elders' testimony false. The story was especially popular in the seventeeth century, and it provided a good pretext for a religious painting including a female nude, voyeurism and a positive moral message. Sir Peter Lely did a well-known version, repeated in several workshop copies. For obvious reasons the story has had a lasting appeal. Luca Giordano was one of the most celebrated artists of the Neopolitan Baroque. His vast output included altarpieces, mythological paintings and many decorative fresco cycles in palaces and churches; he was so productive that he was known as 'Fa presto' - do it quick! He travelled widely working in Naples, Venice, Florence and Madrid. Rubens had a lasting influence on Giordano, who expressed his admiration for the Flemish artist in his Rubens Painting an Allegory of Peace, (Madrid, Prado). He was summoned to Spain by Charles II in 1692, and was appointed court painter in 1694. Here he completed many large projects including the ceiling of the sacristy of Toledo Cathedral. However it was in Venice that his influence was most marked. Venetian artists were attracted by the warmth and colour that Giordano absorbed from Rubens, by his Baroque sense of space and by the contrasts of light and dark inspired by Ribera. | Subjects: | religion (Susannah and the Elders) | Source: | Vads | Creator: | Artist: Giordano, Luca (Italian painter, 1634-1705, active in Italy and Spain) Æ Attributed to | Identifier: | http://www.vads.ac.uk/large.php?uid=8462... | Go to resource |
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