01 Work, RELIGIOUS ART - Interpretation of the bible, Susanna and the old men. With Footnotes - #145

17TH CENTURY VENETIAN ARTIST

Susanna and the old men

Oil on canvas

32 x 22 cm

Private collection

A fair Hebrew wife named Susanna was falsely accused by lecherous voyeurs. As she bathes in her garden, having sent her attendants away, two lustful elders secretly observe the lovely Susanna. When she makes her way back to her house, they accost her, threatening to claim that she was meeting a young man in the garden unless she agrees to have sex with them.

She refuses to be blackmailed and is arrested and about to be put to death for promiscuity when a young man named Daniel interrupts the proceedings, shouting that the elders should be questioned to prevent the death of an innocent. After being separated, the two men are questioned about details of what they saw, but disagree about the tree under which Susanna supposedly met her lover. In the Greek text, the names of the trees cited by the elders form puns with the sentence given by Daniel. The first says they were under a mastic, and Daniel says that an angel stands ready to cuthim in two. The second says they were under an evergreen oak tree, and Daniel says that an angel stands ready to saw him in two. The great difference in size between a mastic and an oak makes the elders' lie plain to all the observers. The false accusers are put to death, and virtue triumphs. More about Susanna

The Venetian School of Painting: Around the end of the 15th Century Venice’s art scene began to flourish and differentiate itself from the style of art being made in the rest of Italy at the time. These paintings are characterized with more of an emphasis on color instead of strong lines. While influenced by many outside artists some people claim that perhaps it was the hazy lighting of Venice that led these painters to be so enamored with using glowing light and soft brush strokes. The true Venetian School of Painting ended around the late 17th Century but it’s influence reaches far past that. There are far more artists that were a part of this beautiful movement but Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, Veronese, Jacob Bassano (de Ponte), and Tintoretto are some of the most significant. More on Around the end of the 15th Century Venice’s art scene began to flourish and differentiate itself from the style of art being made in the rest of Italy at the time. These paintings are characterized with more of an emphasis on color instead of strong lines. While influenced by many outside artists some people claim that perhaps it was the hazy lighting of Venice that led these painters to be so enamored with using glowing light and soft brush strokes. The true Venetian School of Painting ended around the late 17th Century but it’s influence reaches far past that. There are far more artists that were a part of this beautiful movement but Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, Veronese, Jacob Bassano (de Ponte), and Tintoretto are some of the most significant. More on The Venetian School of Painting

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