Painting reproduction on canvas of the artwork
Susanna and the elders (Stuck)

In this striking vertical format (1:3), Franz von Stuck revisits the biblical tale of “Susanna and the elders” with palpable dramatic tension. The bold composition splits the space in two. Below, the beautiful Susanna, surprised in her bath, cowers at the edge of the pool, a protective hand over her bare breast. Her luminous skin contrasts with the glowing red drape on which she sits. At the top of the canvas, emerging dangerously from the top of a large grey stone wall, two elders watch the young woman with lustful gazes. Von Stuck exacerbates the voyeuristic eroticism of the myth here, while accentuating the vulnerability of the female figure through the overwhelming height of the wall that separates them.