The painting has recently been published by Nora Clerici Bagozzi as a work by Cesare Gennari, one of the most prominent artists among the close followers of Giovanni Francesco Barbieri known as Guercino. Gennari was responsible for forging the stylistic qualities that have only recently come into focus in greater detail: a new wave of vitalism, a delicate chromatic range and a new atmosphere that pervades the work are clearly the result of his hand.

After having sought to emulate his uncle’s prototypes and started along a path of robust and synthetic realism, in the 1670s, Cesare began referring to models proposed by Domenico Maria Canuti and Lorenzo Pasinelli, slightly changing the connotations of his work and veering towards a warmer ‘neo-Venetian’ and Baroque manner. These sensibilities can be found in this painting with its intense chiaroscuro effects used to achieve a rational arrangement of the space depicted. Certain refined details similar to those found in Pasinelli can also be noted, along with a varied range of colors, especially

in the dark and light tones of Susanna’s flesh. There is a particularly intense combination of sensually rich flesh tones juxtaposed with pallid ones that seem to be touched by moonlight. The reflected shadows and the half-lights effectively emphasize the gestures and poses, lending solidity to the characters’ desires and fears. The subject certainly calls for such a rendering of the gestures, colors and lighting: the Biblical episode from the Book of Daniel tells the story of a very beautiful and pious woman, Susanna, who is spied upon while bathing by two old men in her husband’s house. These two men, judges in the Hebrew community, try to bribe the young lady, threatening to tell her husband that she is unfaithful - which they know to be a lie - unless she gives herself to them. The young woman’s refusal leads them to bring her to trial. Only Daniel’s intervention saves the young lady from the sentence of stoning.

This painting of Susanna and the Elders by Cesare Gennari can be considered a masterpiece of the 1670s, an homage to Guercino and other painters emerging during those years, such as the aforementioned Pasinelli. In terms of some stylistic details, Cesare Gennari seems to anticipate the great Ubaldo Gandolfi.

Nora Clerici Bagozzi notes that the painting might have been part of the collection of Giuseppe Carlo Ratta Garganelli. In the 1679 inheritance inventory of his possessions we read Un Quadro ovato di Susana Nuda, con panno bianco con i due Vecchi, e veduta di Paese e Fontane di Cesare Gennari, alta onze 35, larga onze 48.