Overview
The story of the beautiful and chaste Susanna is recounted in Daniel 13. Two elders of Babylon lusted for Susanna, the wife of the priest Joachim. They spied upon her as she bathed, then threatened to falsely accuse her of adultery with another man unless she submitted to their advances. Although the subject can be interpreted as a parable of justice—Susanna is ultimately vindicated—artists of the period clearly favored the image of the nude Susanna at the bath for its sensual appeal.
The painting may have originally been part of a decorative ensemble of six biblical scenes that hung above a series of doors. The nude figure is stylistically comparable to those in other paintings that can be identified as Tintoretto studio products of the 1570s and 1580s. These nude figures can be distinguished from those by
The identification of different hands in the Tintoretto shop remains a challenge. Here, however, the maid’s facial type is one that appears regularly in paintings that can be associated with Domenico, Tintoretto’s son. The picture can thus provisionally be assigned to Domenico, working in his father’s studio.
Entry
The story of the beautiful and chaste Susanna is recounted in Daniel 13. Two elders of Babylon lusted for Susanna, the wife of the priest Joachim. They spied upon her as she bathed, then threatened to falsely accuse her of adultery with another man unless she submitted to their advances. Although the subject can be interpreted as a parable of justice—Susanna is ultimately vindicated—artists of the period clearly favored the image of the nude Susanna at the bath for its sensual appeal.
Tintoretto’s 17th-century biographer Carlo Ridolfi reported that “Senator Lorenzo Delfino [Dolfin] has . . . six scenes from the Old Testament placed above doors; namely . . . Susanna in the garden, and the two old men, emerging in the distance from a pergola.”
The Gallery’s Susanna has been accepted as an autograph work by Tintoretto by a number of scholars, among them Bernard Berenson, Rodolfo Pallucchini, and Paola Rossi, and, in early manuscript opinions, Roberto Longhi, Raimond van Marle, F. Mason Perkins, Giuseppe Fiocco, Wilhelm Suida, and Adolfo Venturi.
Robert Echols
March 21, 2019
Provenance
Probably Senator Lorenzo Dolfin [or Delfino, 1591-1663], Venice, by 1642.[1] George Oakley Fisher [1859-1933], Egremont House, Sudbury, England.[2] (David M. Koetser Gallery, London). (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Florence); sold June 1936 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[3] gift 1939 to NGA.
Exhibition History
- 1996
- Obras Maestras de la National Gallery of Art de Washington, Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City, 1996-1997, unnumbered catalogue, 48-49, color repro.
- 1999
- Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art; Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, 1999, no. 79, repro.
Technical Summary
The painting was executed on a fabric support made up of two pieces of medium-weight, herringbone fabric sewn together. The vertical seam is located approximately one-quarter from the left edge. The painting has been lined, and the original support has been extended at the top and bottom by a total of approximately 14 centimeters. A strip of canvas of 6 to 7.5 centimeters has been sewn along the top. A strip of 8.5 to 9 centimeters has been added at the bottom; this strip is not sewn to the original canvas and was probably added at the time the painting was first lined. Light cusping evident along both sides indicates that the canvas has not been extended nor cut down horizontally.
Analysis of cracks with a stereo microscope indicates that the painting was built up with multiple layers, probably on a white ground followed by dark underlayers of different colors, with the additional paint layers built up from dark to light. Infrared reflectography at 1.2 to 5 microns
The paint surface is heavily abraded throughout, but especially in the orange drapery, and there are many small areas of paint loss, including some losses in Susanna’s face. There is an old tear in the background to the left of Susanna’s head. The painting was “relined, cleaned and restored” in 1936–1937 by Stephen Pichetto. By 1958 the varnish applied by Stephen Pichetto had darkened. Mario Modestini removed it and inpainted the losses and abrasion.
Joanna Dunn and Robert Echols based on the examination report by Susanna Griswold
March 21, 2019
Bibliography
- 1642
- Ridolfi, Carlo. Vita di Giacopo Robusti detto il Tintoretto. Venice, 1642: 72.
- 1648
- Ridolfi, Carlo. Le maraviglie dell’arte, overo Le vite de gl'illustri pittori veneti, e dello Stato. 2 vols. Venice, 1648: 2:45.
- 1914
- Ridolfi, Carlo. Le maraviglie dell’arte, overo Le vite de gl'illustri pittori veneti, e dello Stato (Venice, 1648). Edited by Detlev von Hadeln. 2 vols. Berlin, 1914-1924: 2(1924):54.
- 1941
- Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 195, no. 342.
- 1942
- Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 246, repro. 196.
- 1957
- Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Venetian School. 2 vols. London, 1957: 1:183.
- 1959
- Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 205, repro.
- 1965
- Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 128.
- 1968
- National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 115, repro.
- 1970
- De Vecchi, Pierluigi. L’opera completa del Tintoretto. Milan, 1970: 115, no. 216.
- 1972
- Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1972: 201.
- 1973
- Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XVI-XVIII Century. London, 1973: 58, fig. 110.
- 1975
- European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 340, repro.
- 1979
- Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:472-473; 2:pl. 337.
- 1982
- Pallucchini, Rodolfo, and Paola Rossi. Tintoretto: le opere sacre e profane. 2 vols. Venice, 1982: 1:160, 210, and 264, no. 377; 2:fig. 487.
- 1984
- Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 227, no. 286, color repro.
- 1985
- European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 391, repro.
- 1991
- Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 184, color repro.
- 1998
- Apostolos-Cappadona, Diana. “Toilet Scenes." In Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography: Themes Depicted in Works of Art. Edited by Helene E. Roberts. 2 vols. Chicago, 1998: 2:874.
- 1999
- Borean, Linda. "Appunti per una storia del collezionismo a Venezia nel Seicento: la pinacoteca di Lorenzo Dolfin." Studi Veneziani 38 (1999): 274, 286, 298 fig. 6.
- 2009
- Echols, Robert, and Frederick Ilchman. “Toward a New Tintoretto Catalogue, with a Checklist of Revised Attributions and a New Chronology.” In Jacopo Tintoretto: Actas del congreso internacional/Proceedings of the International Symposium, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, February 26-27, 2007. Madrid, 2009: 143, no. S36.
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