Statuette

This statuette depicting Susanna and the Elders was probably made in Netherlands in about 1680-1720. This is a sketch-model in terracotta.

Susanna was a fictional heroine of the Old Testament Apocrypha. The two elders threatened to accuse her falsely of adultery unless she gave herself to them. She spurned them, and they carried out their threat of a false charge. She eventually proved her innocence, and became a symbol of the righteous person delivered from evil. Here, the subject provides an opportunity to portray the female nude.