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Lot Essay
The subject is taken from the book of Daniel (Old Testament, Greek Addenda to the book of Daniel, XIII), set during the Exile in Babylon. Susanna, a young and beautiful wife, was secretly desired by two Elders who plotted to seduce her after seeing her bathing. Having failed, they accused her of adultery and she was condemned to death. The young Daniel cross-examined the Elders, and, by the device of separating them from each other, proved Susanna's innocence; the Elders were themselves sentenced to death instead. The choice of this particular moment in Susanna's history provides an important insight into the artist's intent: previous artists had generally preferred to depict the intimate and sensuous scene of Susanna's bath, in the present work, however, emphasis is given to the triumph of justice, understood as an exemplum virtutis.
A drawing related to this painting, squared and highly finished, is in the collection of the Louvre, Paris; it was part of a group of 171 drawings that were bought by the Louvre from the descendants of Baron Gérard in 1972. The drawing bears the inscription: 'La chaste Suzanne justifié par le jeune David (sic) tableau du concours pour le grand prix de Rome en 1790. Il n'a pas ( ?) été terminé'; it is probably a ricordo, made between 1790 and 1793, rather than a preparatory work (E. Lerner in A. Sirullaz, op. cit).
We are grateful to Miss Elodie Lerner for her assistance in the cataloguing of this and the following lot; Miss Lerner has written her thesis on Gérard's work as a history painter. We are also grateful to Philippe Bordes who draws parallels between the present composition and that of Susanna and the Elders by Antoine Coypel (Saint Quentin, Musée Municipal Triboulloy).
A drawing related to this painting, squared and highly finished, is in the collection of the Louvre, Paris; it was part of a group of 171 drawings that were bought by the Louvre from the descendants of Baron Gérard in 1972. The drawing bears the inscription: 'La chaste Suzanne justifié par le jeune David (sic) tableau du concours pour le grand prix de Rome en 1790. Il n'a pas ( ?) été terminé'; it is probably a ricordo, made between 1790 and 1793, rather than a preparatory work (E. Lerner in A. Sirullaz, op. cit).
We are grateful to Miss Elodie Lerner for her assistance in the cataloguing of this and the following lot; Miss Lerner has written her thesis on Gérard's work as a history painter. We are also grateful to Philippe Bordes who draws parallels between the present composition and that of Susanna and the Elders by Antoine Coypel (Saint Quentin, Musée Municipal Triboulloy).