Susanna en de ouderlingen c. 1635 - 1670

This etching, Susanna and the Elders, was created by Daniel van den Dyck, a Dutch artist who died in 1662. It shows a biblical scene that has been revisited by artists for centuries, that of Susanna, surprised while bathing by two older men. The iconography of this image creates meaning through visual codes. Susanna is a beautiful, innocent woman threatened by the voyeurism of powerful older men. Van den Dyck’s etching presents a critique of male power, but it’s also consistent with a broader tradition in Western art of the female nude as a subject of male desire. The male gaze is not only depicted, it’s invited. To understand this fully, we might research the role of religious institutions in the Dutch Golden Age and consider gender dynamics in the period. We can reflect on art as something whose meaning changes, and on the role of the historian in understanding it in context.