Logo_Tornabuoni_Arte_VETTORIALE ORO NEW copiaLogo_Tornabuoni_Arte_VETTORIALE ORO NEW copiaLogo_Tornabuoni_Arte_VETTORIALE ORO NEW copiaLogo_Tornabuoni_Arte_VETTORIALE ORO NEW copia
  • Collections
    • Paintings
      • Fondi oro
      • Renaissance and Mannerism
      • Baroque
      • Neoclassicism and 19th century
    • Sculpture
      • Middle Ages
      • Renaissance and Mannerism
      • Baroque
      • Neoclassicism and 19th century
    • Furniture
      • Cabinets
      • Chest of drawers
      • Chests
      • Sideboard
      • Bookcases
      • Seats
      • Tables
      • More
    • Objects
  • Catalogues
  • News
  • Video
  • About Us
  • Contacts
  • About Us
  • Contacts
  • English
  • Italian
✕

Susanna and the Elders

  • Home
  • Collections
  • Paintings Baroque
  • Susanna and the Elders
STEFANO MARIA LEGNANI, also known as LEGNANINO

d370

STEFANO MARIA LEGNANI, detto il LEGNANINO

STEFANO MARIA LEGNANI called LEGNANINO

Milan, 1661-1713

Susanna eand the Elders

oil on canvas, cm 147×194

The work here presented depicts the steamy episode, taken from the Old Testament (Daniel, chapter 13), in which the virtuous Susanna, married daughter of a rich Jewish man, is caught bathing in the garden of the palace where she lives by two older men. After she refuses to give herself to them, they get her arrested on false accusations, but they will eventually be exposed.

This episode from the Old Testament, very fashionable during the baroque period for its obvious erotic implications – duly masked by the biblical origin – and for the inherent exaltation of marital fidelity, was attributed by Marco Riccomini to Milan- based painter Stefano Maria Legnani.

Legnanino, who some sources say was a student of Cignani in Bologna and of Maratta in Rome, “distinguished himself mainly for the frescoes commissioned by the Court of Savoy, starting with the ones made between 1695 and 1703 in twelve rooms of the palace of Emanuele Filiberto Amedeo of Savoy, prince of Carignano” in Turin, and for the frescoes in a number of important churches, for the most part located in Lombardy.

The scholar rightly points out how this piece is connected to a com- position by Guido Reni now in the National Gallery of London (inv. n. NG 196), in which there is a big similarity, along with the overall structure, in the bearded man’s partly shaded head. Legnanino, the scholar adds, authored at least another version of this composition, a small grisaille canvas, part of a private collection (44,5×60,5 cm), a pendant of Judith and Holofernes, both published years ago and made during the artist’s later years, at the beginning of the eighteenth century. The scholar, rather than assume the grisaille had a preparatory function, speculates that it was “conceived later, as a proof of his prowess and, simultaneously, a ‘souvenir’ of a [significant] commission”, such as the canvas of large size here presented.

Publications:

“Stefano Maria Legnani: Il Legnanino”, edited by Marina Dell’Omo, Edizioni Tipoarte, Bologna, 1998, no. 43, p. 67, fig. 48 and pp. 179-180.

Share

In the same collection:

Pietro Liberi

d397

November 24, 2023

The Muses with Pegasus on Mount Parnassus


Read more
FRANCESCO MONTI DETTO IL BRESCIANINO DELLE BATTAGLIE

d424a

October 1, 2024

Pair of cavalry clashes


Read more
Jean Francois Courtois

d323a

November 23, 2024

Magdalene in meditation


Read more
Monsù Alto, Roma, 1686 - ?, 1712

d157a

April 5, 2025

Landscape


Read more

Tornabuoni Arte – Arte Antica

We look forward to seeing you at the ground floor of the prestigious fourteenth-century building overlooking via Maggio. We host a rich collection of pieces from various eras and origins, both paintings, sculptures and furniture, from the Middle Ages to the 19th century.

Opening hours:

-Tuesday-Saturday
9.30 am - 1 pm / 2.30 pm - 7.00 pm

Contacts:

Address: via Maggio 40r, Florence - 50125
tel. +39 055 - 2670260
fax. +39 055 - 2678032 
mail. antichita@tornabuoniarte.it
© 2020 Tornabuoni Arte. Powered by meltin'Concept
Privacy PolicyCookie Policy
Disclosure requirements for public funding: State and De Minimis aids received by this company are published in the National Register of State Aids, pursuant to art-52 of Law 234/2012, and can be consulted by entering tax code field, the CF 04466800481
Direct Link

English
  • English
  • Italian
  • English
  • Italian