Valentin de Boulogne

VALENTIN DE BOULOGNE (France, 1594 - Italy, 1632)
"Susanna and the old men".
Oil on canvas.
Work published in PAPI, G., Bartolomeo Manfredi, Edizioni dei Soncino, p.299.
It has a XVII century frame.
Measurements: 49,5 x 66 cm; 74,5 x 92 cm (frame).
We see in this painting the theme of Susanna in the bath, a story narrated in the Old Testament, specifically in the Book of Daniel. In this case the author chooses an instant of great drama, in which Susanna already has the men almost on top of her. The artist uses color to emphasize the innocence of Susanna, whose naked body is the only point of illumination of the scene that remains in semi-darkness. The story belongs to the Greek version of the Bible, known as the Septuagint, whose origin dates back to the third century B.C. Susanna was a beautiful and chaste woman, wife of Joachim, a rich Jew in the Babylonian Exile. She is seen and desired by two elders who had been appointed judges among the Jews in exile; both agree to surprise her alone and convince her to give herself to them. In the most widespread version in the art of the story, this occurs during the young woman's bath. Susanna, however, confronts the elders, and tells them that she prefers death to sin. The men, seeing themselves rejected, accuse Susanna of adultery, and she is brought to trial, where they falsely testify against her. At the prominence of her accusers, Susanna is condemned to death by stoning. However, on the way to her death the prophet Daniel, who is then only a child, stops the popular procession and rebukes the people for acting without full knowledge of the cause, and asks to separate the two elders for intelligent questioning. The two false witnesses then fall into contradiction in their statements, and are condemned to death instead of Susana.
Because of its formal and thematic characteristics we can attribute this work to Valentin de Boulogne, a French Baroque painter framed within the Caravaggism. In fact, although the scene shows a classical mastery of anatomy and composition, not only the naturalism of the image but, above all, the chosen theme itself, place it within the orbit of the Caravaggist Baroque. Valentin de Boulogne himself represented similar scenes, an example of which is "Fight of card players" (Tours, Museum of Fine Arts). Settled in Rome since 1612, Boulogne became acquainted there with the work of Caravaggio and Manfredi, and trained with Simon Vouet. He was part of the group of Nordic painters known as "Bentvögel" and came into contact with the popular environments of the Italian capital, which he represented in his genre paintings.