Stripped of Her Power: Sebastiano Ricci’s Susanna and the Elders

BY JANE C. CUSTER

Susanna and the Elders is a story laced with lust, lies, and vindication. Susanna was a beautiful, virtuous Jewish woman married to a wealthy and respected man named Joachim.

While Susanna was bathing in the privacy of her husband’s garden, two Jewish elders spied her. These powerful men harassed Susanna, threatening to accuse her of adultery by saying that they witnessed her having a tryst with a young man unless she would have sex with both of them. In Susanna’s world, adultery was a crime punishable by death. However, Susanna remained faithful to her husband, acting as a pillar of strength and virtue even as she faced threatened public humiliation and the possibility of death. The Elders, following through with their threats, accused her of being an adulteress. The judges believed the lies of Susanna’s accusers, and so she was sentenced to death. Luckily, young Daniel appeared on the scene.

Acting as judge, Daniel interrogated the elders, caught them in their lie, and sentenced them to execution by stoning.1 This outcome vindicated Susanna and restored her reputation. Susanna became an Old Testament heroine because of her virtue, fearlessness, and strength of character.

Susanna lost her image as a heroine during the Renaissance and Enlightenment thanks to the many artists who represented her as a victim; weak and compliant, she does not fight back. These artists stripped Susanna of her identity as an Old Testament heroine and placed her

1Bruce M. Metzger, “Susanna and the Elders,” Jewish Virtual Library, (accessed November 16, 2013), http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0019_0_19381.html.

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in the role of the subservient, sexually available female. As a result, Susanna became the target of unbridled male lust and a victim of voyeurism.

In Susannah and the Elders (1713), Sebastiano Ricci forces Susanna’s body into unnatural contortions, positioning her as a victim (figure 1). As we shall see, this representation reveals

Ricci’s misogynistic tendencies and his cavalier attitude toward women as benign objects of male desire. Such representations have had a negative impact in the larger context of art history and society.

Interestingly, Artemesia Gentileschi’s representation of Susanna and the Elders (1610) is an exception. In Gentileschi’s representation, Susanna uses her arms to push the Elders away as she turns her face from them in horror (figure 2). Her posture and facial expression indicate her absolute protest against their advances as well as her determination to escape the situation.

Gentileschi is known for her unique paintings in which strong women, often Biblical heroines, take action against their enemies rather than responding passively. Like Susanna, Gentileschi was the victim of sexual assault. Art historians, such as Mary D. Garrard, theorize that

Gentileschi’s unique representations of women in her artwork reflect her experiences as a victim of multiple rapes who then suffered the rape’s subsequent stigmatization not only in her lifetime but also in art historians’ memory of her.2 Similarly, Sebastiano Ricci’s experiences and attitudes manifest themselves in his work.

2Mary D. Garrard, “Artemisia and Susanna,” in Feminism and Art History: Questioning the Litany, edited by Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard (New York: Harper & Row, 1982), 147-71.

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Sebastiano Ricci’s Susanna and the Elders is a richly colored oil painting on canvas. In the central foreground is the composition’s focal point, Susanna, represented as a nude woman. She occupies the bottom corner of an upside-down triangle that she shares with male figures occupying the top two corners of the triangle. These two men, the Elders, are standing and leaning above Susanna, who cowers below them. All of the composition’s other elements, including the viewer, are arranged in radial symmetry around the painting’s focal point.

The predominant element in this triadic composition is color. The painting has a warm temperature due to Ricci’s liberal use of rich red and yellow hues along with his limited use of muted blue hues. This composition’s warm yellows, saffron, and deep reds, appearing in the male figure’s clothing and Susanna’s drape, lend balance to the luminous flesh tones of her body. Susanna’s luminous torso and legs contrast sharply with the rich hues and dark tones of the men’s robes and shadowy architectural elements that surround her while also creating enclosure within the central grouping. Dark blue, used minimally in clothing in the foreground, provides cool contrast to warm hues. Ricci used a lighter, brighter blue in the sky appearing in the distant background. Heavy gray clouds move into the clear blue sky beneath wispy white clouds, giving the composition great depth. The active blue sky recedes in contrast to the architectural elements in the foreground, midground, and background, which are painted in white and shades of gray. Rising above the white-gray walls, cedar trees, painted in a low- intensity green hue, pierce the sky. The high-intensity off-white walls in the background push the colorful central group forward which refocuses attention on the composition’s front and

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center. In this way, Ricci used forms and colors to create enclosure that pulls viewers’ eyes to

Susanna, the composition’s focus.

Ricci uses line and shape to establish conflicts occurring in the composition. For example, in the midground and background, straight, evenly-weighted lines establish the solidity of the stone pillars and the wall enclosing Susanna with the predatory men. In the foreground, the straight, heavy lines of the bath abut the soft, curvilinear lines of Susanna’s body. The human figures in the foreground are formed with flowing contour lines. The male figures have a realistic appearance. In contrast, Susanna’s figure falls into an extreme contrapposto pose that is not realistic, though it effectively emphasizes her curvaceous figure.

Curvilinear shapes also create balance and tension. For instance, on the left side, a statue and two pillars bring balance to one man’s extended arm, his flowing robe, the fountain, and

Susanna’s drape on the right side. Additionally, the three central figures are composed of separate shapes abutting and overlapping one another. This interaction of shapes emphasizes the men’s invasive intentions.

The artist established psychic lines as an essential part of the action in the painting. First, psychic lines are formed by the two men looking directly at Susanna’s face. The kneeling man gestures to himself with one hand as he clutches Susanna’s collar bone with his other hand. The standing man points to the left, while his other finger points upward, as if to silence her.

Susanna looks at the standing man with a fearful expression on her upturned face.

Sebastiano Ricci uses chiaroscuro to effectively convey emotions. Around the Elders, dark hues create shadows emphasizing the Elders’ negative intentions. In contrast, light,

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saturated flesh tones washing over Susanna emphasize her gentle nature and suggest her innocence. The shadowy architectural elements increase the painting’s dramatic mood. In fact, the men appear to have emerged from the shadows, their presence casting shadows over

Susanna. Contrasting dark and light values in the clothing of the central figures create texture while increasing the scene’s drama. The light gray values of the garden wall, the pale blue sky, and the sunlight of the background contrast against the shadowy midground, creating depth in the painting.

The composition’s various gray-toned architectural elements in the foreground, midground, and background may have a subtle appearance, but they play a big role in the painting’s symbolism and iconography, setting the stage for the action in the painting’s central grouping. Iconography plays an important role in religious paintings, so it is another important factor to consider.

Determining the painting’s iconographic origins is easy in this case. The classical architectural elements are typical of the late Baroque period in which the work was painted; they also point to the Classical realm of iconography. Furthermore, as an Italian man, it is likely that Ricci would have been inclined to apply Classical Greco-Roman along with some Christian iconography.

Beginning in the background, cedar trees––icons of the Holy Land––are rising above the garden walls, which are symbolic of man’s domination over nature. More importantly, the walls are also an indication of Susanna’s domesticity. Throughout art history, walls have been used to define women’s place in the world; most often, they are depicted within the walls of a garden or

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a home, the place where respectable women were expected to stay. The tightly closed door in the wall suggests Susanna’s isolation and also her entrapment. Although the setting is a garden, no plants are growing within its walls, suggesting that Susanna’s “garden” (her womb) is barren.

The satyr sculpture, standing at midground, is a symbol of virility and unrestrained sexuality. The two columns standing directly behind the two men are phallic symbols. The fountain, located close to Susanna on her left, and the bath, in which her left leg dangles, are sometimes viewed as symbols of purity. However, these water elements are also symbols of female sexuality, originating with ancient Greco-Roman images of Aphrodite (Venus) depicting her with a bathing pitcher if not with a larger body of water.

The Elders are dressed in richly colored robes which indicate their power. In contrast,

Susanna is powerless and vulnerable due to her nudity. Although her scant drape is richly colored, Ricci applied a muted, rosy red rather than using the same regal red he used in the garments of the Elders. The softer, rosy red of Susanna’s drape suggests her femininity. The composition’s iconography and symbolism work together to emphasize the polarity between the sexes, pointing to male domination and female submission. Ricci reinforces the theme by applying dark tones to create shadows which are cast by the satyr and columns and falling over the feminine elements. All of this sets the mood for the action of the figures in the foreground.

Many elements communicate that the woman is being sexually intimidated by the men.

The two clothed men are hovering over a nude woman. Their stances, gestures, and facial expressions indicate the aggression of the men and the intimidation of the woman. The men’s

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bodies are cast in shadows that seem to creep around Susanna’s pale figure from behind. She looks up into the face of the standing Elder with her mouth hanging open. His right index finger points toward his lips, as he gestures for her silence while his left index finger points towards the scene’s left. She shrinks away from the men, which causes her naked body to fall into the exaggerated contrapposto, with her right hand attempting to cover her breasts while her other hand pulls her red drape over her lower torso. In this way, Ricci represents Susanna as a seductive sex goddess by placing her in the Venus Pudica pose: that is, contrapposto with hands attempting to cover, while also drawing attention to, the breasts and genitals.

Focusing on Susanna provides much information for a feminist analysis that will help us determine Ricci’s attitude toward women. Susanna’s position at the bottom of the triangle formed by the placement of the three figures reminds viewers that she is an Other––a woman and a Jewish person. Her identification as an Other tells the eighteenth-century English audience that she is subordinate to the men and the viewer.3 Additionally, although Susanna’s character is virtuous and heroic, nothing in Ricci’s representation indicates this to the viewer.

As feminist art historians Griselda Pollock and Rozsika Parker describe, “Women caught in moments of penitential contemplation or private suffering, in acts of heroism or courage, are shown to the viewer for the enjoyment of the sight of the woman and not for the psychological or dramatic impact of the events.”4

3Such post-colonial theory also applies to feminist theory. According to Albert Boime, figures placed at the bottom of the triangle “have been consigned to the bottom of the social, as well as the visual, pyramid.” Albert Boime, “Triangular Trade and Triangular Compositions,” The Art of Exclusion: Representing Blacks in the Nineteenth Century (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990), 17. 4Rozsika Parker and Griselda Pollock, Old Mistresses: Women, Art and Ideology (New York: Pantheon Books, 1981), 27. 7 Valley Humanities Review Spring 2015

Next, Susanna’s physical features must be considered. Her luminous body strongly contrasts with her shadowy surroundings. Her softly rendered, golden hair falls away from her upturned face, suggesting surprise and fear, but her parted lips are passionate and compliant, suggesting that she might be a willing participant. At her neck, her musculature indicates she is gasping in fear, but the rings of Venus on her neck remind us not only of Susanna’s ideal classical beauty but also of her identification with Venus. Although her arms appear toned and strong, she uses them only in a meek attempt to cover herself, rather than to fight for herself.

Although her twisted torso emphasizes her struggle and shows her vulnerability, it also puts Susanna in a very precarious position. As her torso twists to face the viewer, she kneels and sits back on her right leg while her left leg falls down toward the left and into the bath. She is unable to stand or run from this position. In this position, Susanna’s legs are forced apart.

With her drape barely covering her upper inner thighs, Ricci comes very close to exposing

Susanna to viewers. This is no accident! Ricci carefully arranged Susanna and the surrounding elements to draw attention to her, boldly teasing his audience with her struggling body.

In Ricci’s Susanna and the Elders, it is important to consider the viewer because Ricci made the viewer a part of the composition. This representation of Susanna would have appealed to Ricci’s audience––white, heterosexual men of high social standing––because it reinforced their deeply entrenched patriarchal values. It was in their best interests economically and socially to keep women in society’s subordinate roles, and so they would approve of

Susanna’s representation as an object intended for the gaze of the viewer and nothing more. In

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fact, the eighteenth-century male viewer would identify with the Elders (the villains) rather than Susanna (the heroine), according to feminist art historian Mary D. Garrard.5

To bring the viewer into the composition, Ricci used foreshortening when painting the bath, also leaving an open space in the extreme foreground. This places the viewer in the bath standing directly in front of Susanna, and assures that the audience has a full view of Susanna.

In this way, Ricci forces viewers to join in the Elders’ voyeurism. In fact, the Elders assist the viewer by distracting Susanna with their advances in order to give the viewer “undisturbed, voyeuristic enjoyment of the female form” and presenting “woman as object to a male viewer/possessor outside the painting.”6 Ricci’s painting offers no moral message. In effect, it is an example of eighteenth-century erotica, designed for the excitement and pleasure of male viewers.

Some may suggest that Ricci was not a misogynist, but an ordinary man who was simply a product of his time. It is true that Ricci’s chauvinism was standard practice in his lifetime. According to Parker and Pollock, in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, women in the arts were being excluded from places of art education and exhibition in increasing numbers. In fact, although a few women were originally admitted to the Paris

Académi, the institution barred them in 1706.7 No doubt such measures reflected the negative attitudes toward women at all levels of patriarchal society and also validated Ricci’s personal misogynistic tendencies. However chauvinistic society was in the seventeenth and eighteenth

5Garrard, 153.

6Parker and Pollock, 116. 7Parker and Pollock, 27. 9 Valley Humanities Review Spring 2015

centuries, Ricci’s life choices, described in the following short biography, prove that his misogyny was exceptional.

Sebastiano Ricci, an artist of the Venetian School, is best known for his fresco paintings.

Ricci’s biographers give similar accounts of his life and his problems. He was born and baptized in Belluno, Italy, in 1659. At age fifteen, he relocated to Venice to receive artistic inspiration and training. According to Jeffrey Daniels, in 1681 Ricci’s stay in Venice was cut short by unspecified legal problems.8 Francesca Baldassari describes those legal problems in detail. She writes that around 1678-1680, “Ricci made two women pregnant and had attempted to poison the younger.”9 He was arrested for attempted murder, for which he faced punishment by death. Ricci was rescued by an unidentified noble patron and immediately moved to Bologna in order to escape the Venetian magistrate’s jurisdiction.10

Records indicate that Ricci’s young poisoning victim was eventually brought to Bologna where he married her.11 This was a typical eighteenth-century solution for legitimizing pregnancy. Two of Ricci’s biographers explain that Ricci’s misconduct toward women did not stop there. According to Jeffrey Daniels, Ricci was visiting Parma with his wife when he was imprisoned due to “yet another escapade involving a female.”12 The Duke of Parma bailed him out this time, in exchange for artwork.

8Jeffery Daniels, Sebastiano Ricci (Sussex, UK: Wayland Publishers, 1976), ix.

9Francesca Baldassari, The Victory of David over Goliath: The Discovery of a Masterpiece by Sebastiano Ricci (Firenze: Centro Di for Moretti Fine Art Ltd., 2013), 23. 10Daniels, ix. 11Daniels, x. 12Daniels, x. 10 Valley Humanities Review Spring 2015

Soon after that incident, Ricci returned to Bologna with his wife and child but, forgetting about them once again, he eloped to Turin with the young daughter of landscape painter

Peruzzini. Thanks to Peruzzini’s family connections in Turin, Ricci was “denounced, arrested, and sentenced to death for abduction and bigamy.” The Duke of Parma intervened again and

Ricci’s punishment was commuted to “eternal banishment from Turin.”13

Instead of returning to Bologna, Ricci spent the next fifteen years in exile, traveling throughout Italy and much of Europe, painting and observing artwork along the way while also gaining fame and fortune via his European admirers. His exile from Italy ended when certain authorities died. In 1718, Sebastiano Ricci returned to Italy as a rich and successful artist. He died in Venice in 1734, leaving behind an extensive catalog of work––and a record of sexual conquests including convictions of abduction, bigamy, and attempted murder.

Sebastiano Ricci’s version of Susanna and the Elders represents Susanna as nothing more than a sex object. Ricci’s biographical analysis offers enough evidence regarding his destructive behavior toward multiple women to prove that Ricci was a misogynist of the worst kind. His representation of Susanna is a reflection of his misogynistic tendencies and his cavalier attitude toward women as benign objects of male desire.

Parker and Pollock’s description of the woman in art whose appearance is “passive, available, possessable, and powerless,” signifying man’s position of dominance in the world, could apply easily to Ricci’s Susanna; in this way, Ricci is a “user of the language of his

13Baldassari, 23.

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culture.”14 Because Susanna represented every woman to Ricci, he was compelled to represent her as a seductress in order to justify his own behavior toward women, thereby transferring the blame for his lecherous behavior to all women. Therefore, he stripped Susanna of her identity as a heroine, put her on display as a woman of questionable virtue, and invited other men to join him in objectifying her. Ricci used his art to justify his misogyny while also celebrating the power of all men in a patriarchal society.

The varied biographical accounts of Ricci’s life reflect chauvinistic attitudes still existing within the community of art historians. For instance, one biography, appearing in a catalog, presents Ricci as having traveled extensively due to his adventurous nature.15 This glosses over the fact that Sebastiano Ricci was on the run from an attempted murder conviction. Another biography describes Ricci as a man who was “highly sexed” and “impetuous.”16 Still another describes him as being driven by his “unbridled sensuality.”17 In an English exhibition catalog of Ricci’s work, an art historian glibly writes about Susanna and the Elders as depicting

“Susanna’s unfortunate experience,” then refers to Ricci as having the “unimpeachable” ability to depict the subject due to his escapades which “almost lost him his head.”18

It is a sad fact that throughout art history Susanna’s “No!” is ignored. She did not consent, but artists and art historians in a patriarchal society discount the woman’s opinion and take away her power. Susanna, who was on her way to being raped, stopped the act through

14Parker and Pollock, 116. 15Jeffrey Daniels and Terence Mullaly, in Works by Sebastiano Ricci from British Collections (London: P & D Colnaghi & Co. Ltd.), 16.

16Daniels, xvi. 17Daniels and Mullaly, 20. 18Daniels and Mullaly, [16].

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her resistance. She defended her own virtue by heroically standing up for herself; however, that is not the focus of Susanna’s representations. By placing Susanna in the role of sex object, and by glorifying the Elders, the act of rape is glorified. This is perpetuated by art historians who default to comfortably familiar patriarchal interpretations. Because the rape and abduction of women has been a common theme in Judeo-Christian and Classical literature, there are many other works of art that glorify rape, such as the Rape of the Sabines, the Abduction of Europa, and the Rape of Persephone.

Unfortunately, patriarchal messages are firmly implanted in art, due to the longevity of art itself. Artists and art historians often unknowingly perpetuate these messages. “Art is not a mirror,” as Parker and Pollock explain. “It mediates and re-presents social relations in a schema of signs which require a receptive and preconditioned reader in order to be meaningful. And it is at that level of what those signs connote, even unconsciously, that patriarchal ideology is reproduced.”19

In this way, the personal misogyny of Sebastiano Ricci and others will continue to seep into the art world. From artistic representations, patriarchal ideologies spread and continue to influence thinking in our society. As long as victimized women are still blamed for rape and other forms of violence, it will be necessary for feminist art historians to continue to battle patriarchal ideologies conveyed by art.

19Parker and Pollock, 119.

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(fig.1) Sebastiano Ricci, Susanna and the Elders, 1713, Oil on canvas. Available from Wikimedia Commons.

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(fig. 2) Artemesia Gentileschi, Susanna and the Elders, 1610, Oil on canvas. Available from Wikimedia Commons.

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