Frans Floris

The painting testifies to Floris’s interest in combining the lessons of his Italian travels with a traditionally Netherlandish approach to oil paint. Its subject – a dramatic biblical legend of an attack on a young woman’s virtue – allowed Floris to display his skills at painting the female nude and constructing a compelling visual narrative. This work was executed in 1547/8 shortly after Floris’s lengthy sojourn in Italy  and represents Susanna’s garden as an Italian garden court filled with allusions to his recent studies of antiquities and Renaissance art. The maid in the foreground holds a large gold and silver vessel, which appears to be antique but is actually a contemporary, fantastical invention. It corresponds to an engraving designed by Frans Floris’s brother Cornelis Floris and published in 1548.