Susanna at The Bath

myminifactory

This plaster sculpture, crafted in 1826, was gifted to the museum. The artwork portrays the biblical figure Susannah at the Bath. In the book of Daniel, Susanna is assaulted by two lustful elderly men while bathing in her garden. They threaten to accuse her of meeting a young man unless she agrees to have sex with them. She refuses their blackmail and is arrested for promiscuity before being saved by the young Daniel, who interrupts the proceedings, shouting that the elders should be questioned to spare an innocent life. After separating the men, they are cross-examined about the details of what they saw but disagree over the tree under which Susanna supposedly met her lover. In the Greek text, the names of the trees cited by the elders form puns with Daniel's sentence. The first elder claims they were under a mastic tree and Daniel says an angel is ready to cut him in two. The second elder says they were under an evergreen oak tree and Daniel says an angel stands ready to saw him in two. The significant difference in size between the mastic and the oak makes their lie obvious to everyone watching. The false accusers are put to death, and virtue prevails.