''Susanna at her Bath'' is an 1850

religious Religion is a range of social- cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural ...

history painting History painting is a genre in painting defined by its subject matter rather than any artistic style or specific period. History paintings depict a moment in a narrative story, most often (but not exclusively) Greek and Roman mythology and B ...

by the Italian

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...

Francesco Hayez Francesco Hayez (; 10 February 1791 – 12 February 1882) was an Italian painter. He is considered one of the leading artists of Romanticism in mid-19th-century Milan, and is renowned for his grand historical paintings, political allegories, and ...

. It depicts the

biblical The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) biblical languages ...

figure of Susanna in a

nude scene In film, nudity may be either graphic or suggestive, such as when a person appears to be naked but is covered by a sheet. Since the birth of film, depictions of any form of sexuality have been controversial, and in the case of most nude scenes, ...

. Drawn from the story of Susanna and the Elders, it was a popular subject for artists from the

Renaissance era The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

onwards. Although Hayez does not depict the old men watching Sussana as she is bathing, their presence is suggest by her startled expression as she looks over her shoulder. Today the painting is in a

private collection A private collection is a privately owned collection of works (usually artworks) or valuable items. In a museum or art gallery context, the term signifies that a certain work is not owned by that institution, but is on loan from an individual ...

, but has been on display at the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current di ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

.https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/francesco-hayez-susanna-at-her-bath

References

Bibliography

* Grillo, Jennie. ''Daniel After Babylon: The Additions in the History of Interpretation''. Oxford University Press, 2024. * Mazzocca, Fernando. ''Francesco Hayez: catalogo ragionato''. F. Motta, 1994. * Philpot, Elizabeth. ''Old Testament Apocryphal Images in European Art''. Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, 2009. 1850 paintings Paintings by Francesco Hayez Nude paintings of women Oil on canvas paintings Bathing in art Paintings of Susanna and the Elders {{1850s-painting-stub