Susanna and the Elders

The museum dates this to about 1622 or 1623, when van Dyck, in his early twenties, had left Antwerp and Rubens's studio for Italy, and it hears Venetian painting in the colour and in the dry, streaky touches of reflected light. The story comes from the Book of Daniel. Susanna, a married woman, is bathing in her garden when two respected elders corner her and demand she submit, threatening to accuse her of adultery if she refuses. Van Dyck freezes the worst instant. One elder drags at the red cloth she clutches to cover herself while the other leans in from the shadow. Everything is pushed close to the front of the picture, so there is nowhere for her, or for us, to step back. It came to Munich in 1806 with the paintings of the Düsseldorf gallery.