Susannah Bathing

The story is from the Book of Daniel: Susanna, a married woman, bathes in her garden, and two respected elders hidden in the bushes spy on her, then threaten to accuse her of adultery unless she submits. It was a favourite subject in 16th-century Venice, partly because it licensed a large, luminous female nude. Tintoretto sets her by a rose hedge with a mirror propped on the ground, absorbed in herself, while the two old men lurk at the edges, one just visible past the greenery. He painted it around the middle of the century, when he was competing hard for commissions against the older Titian. The picture later entered the French royal collection and is now in the Louvre.