Two elders harass Susanna while she is bathing. They falsely accuse her of adultery (foreground on the left), before these lies are exposed by Daniel (center). Finally, we see a miniature depiction of the elders being stoned to death in the background. This simultaneous narrative is a medieval technique and was long used as a way of showing a sequence of events within the same pictorial space. But the artist’s style of depiction is completely new: an architectural setting rendered in perspective and demonstrating Görtschacher’s knowledge of the Northern Italian Renaissance. A proud artist, he has signed his work at the base with his hallmark stalk of blue chicory flowers.
c. 1520
Painting on spruce
99.0 x 132.0cm
4881
Image © Belvedere, Vienna, 2024
Where you'll find this
Upper Belvedere
Permanent collection