Susanna and the Elders

Hendrick Goltzius was in his late fifties when he painted this, in 1615, two years before he died. The story comes from the Book of Daniel. Two respected elders spy on Susanna as she bathes in her garden and threaten to accuse her of adultery unless she gives in to them. She refuses, they repeat their lie in court, and the young Daniel saves her by questioning the two men separately until their stories fall apart. Goltzius pushes all three figures up against the front of the picture, the old men leaning in over Susanna's shoulder, with an open jewel casket beside her. More than a century later the canvas travelled north. It was probably bought by Lovisa Ulrika, a Prussian princess who became queen of Sweden and built up a picture collection at her palace of Drottningholm, outside Stockholm. It stayed in Swedish hands for most of the next two centuries, and the museum bought it in 2000.