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Lot Essay
Three variants of the composition by Koninck are known: that in the Schloss Schönbrunn sale, Berlin, 24 February 1930, lot 37, illustrated; that on the Paris Art Market, circa 1965, as school of Jan Lievens; and that formerly in the collection of Prince Yusupoff, St. Petersburg, sold anonymously, Lempertz, Cologne, 15 November 1972, lot 88.
Having trained under Claes Cornelisz. Moeyaert, Koninck became a member of the Amsterdam Guild of Saint Luke in 1632. The present picture is dated 1649, by which time the artist had fully absorbed the influence both of Rembrandt, with whose work he must have been familiar, and of the Leiden fijnschilders. Whilst the stimulus of the former can be seen, in particular, in the strong chiarascuro effects and facial types, the influence of the latter is more noticeable in the rendition of the fabrics and metallic objects to which the artist has typically devoted special attention.
The subject is taken from the Apocrypha, which relates that the eponymous heroine, the wife of a prosperous Jew in Babylon during the exile, was secretly desired by two elders of the community. They waited for an occasion when the maiden was bathing alone, and then sprang out, threatening that unless she surrendered herself, they would swear that they had witnessed her committing adultery, for which the penalty was death. Refusing to comply with their blackmail, she cried out, was subsequently convicted on their evidence and condemned to death, however, the Prophet Daniel cross-examined the two elders separately, and, finding conflicting details in their evidence, proved her innocence.
The name Susannah in Hebrew means a lily, the symbol of purity. She appears in the earliest Christian art in the Roman catacombs, perhaps as an example of the final delivery of the righteous from evil. Through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the subject was taken to symbolize the Church threatened and saved from its enemies, and was therefore widely popularised in art; its continued depiction, however, probably owed more to its somewhat salacious subject matter than to any underlying moral meaning.
Having trained under Claes Cornelisz. Moeyaert, Koninck became a member of the Amsterdam Guild of Saint Luke in 1632. The present picture is dated 1649, by which time the artist had fully absorbed the influence both of Rembrandt, with whose work he must have been familiar, and of the Leiden fijnschilders. Whilst the stimulus of the former can be seen, in particular, in the strong chiarascuro effects and facial types, the influence of the latter is more noticeable in the rendition of the fabrics and metallic objects to which the artist has typically devoted special attention.
The subject is taken from the Apocrypha, which relates that the eponymous heroine, the wife of a prosperous Jew in Babylon during the exile, was secretly desired by two elders of the community. They waited for an occasion when the maiden was bathing alone, and then sprang out, threatening that unless she surrendered herself, they would swear that they had witnessed her committing adultery, for which the penalty was death. Refusing to comply with their blackmail, she cried out, was subsequently convicted on their evidence and condemned to death, however, the Prophet Daniel cross-examined the two elders separately, and, finding conflicting details in their evidence, proved her innocence.
The name Susannah in Hebrew means a lily, the symbol of purity. She appears in the earliest Christian art in the Roman catacombs, perhaps as an example of the final delivery of the righteous from evil. Through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the subject was taken to symbolize the Church threatened and saved from its enemies, and was therefore widely popularised in art; its continued depiction, however, probably owed more to its somewhat salacious subject matter than to any underlying moral meaning.