GIORDANO, LUCA, called FA PRESTO

SUSANNAH HAULED BEFORE A COURT

There is a signature in small letters on the scroll held by the judge: "Luca Giordan.".

The virtuous Susanna has been sentenced to death for adultery on the basis of the false testimony of two elders. The young prophet Daniel rescued her by exposing the old men's lies. Precisely this episode is depicted in the painting. The canvas belongs to the early period of the artist's work, when Giordano was imitating the painterly manner of Dürer and Dutch painters. Ferrari and Scavizzi (1992) dated this picture from the Pushkin Museum's collection to c. 1654.

Provenance: Acquired in 1924 from the Shuvalov palace-museum in Leningrad.