Posted on: 5 November 2012

Susanna and the Elders, folio from the Gulshan Album (Rose Garden album)
ca. 1595

Mughal dynasty
Reign of Jahangir
Oil on paper (image); opaque watercolor and gold on paper (borders)
H: 24.7 W: 13.4 cm
India

This folio is a striking demonstration of Mughal artistic creativity and experimentation. The oil on paper is in a style closely related to paintings from Portugal and is one of the only two known oils from Mughal India.

Copyright © 2012 Smithsonian Institution


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can't understand this painting, what does it say, does not look nice!

What does the book of Daniel have anything to do with "rule of Jehangir'? Didn't understand...On googling , found the above is the work Giuseppe Bartolomeo Chiari...

As the narration above clearly mentions..."The oil on paper is in a style closely related to paintings from Portugal and is one of the only two known oils from Mughal India." This painting is only indicative of many styles experimented during the Mughal period.

sorry I was more wanting to know the message and subject of the painting! thanks!

???...You mean this resembles the Mughal style from the days of Jehangir?...??? :) Maybe the Kotharis of Rajgarh Antiques and Mr.Pulin Trivedi can throw some additional light on this.

Yeah I want to know whats going on as well. Why is the old ginger dude fiddling with her? Why is she sitting on her dress? Who is the pervert behind her? So many questions.

Not really Arindam. Looks more like a bad copy of the original.

Janine Shroff: The story behind this painting conforms with your casual observation. That guy is indeed a pervert. Wiki to our rescue: Susanna or Shoshana (Hebrew: שׁוֹשַׁנָּה, Modern Šošana Tiberian Šôšannâ: "lily") included in the Book of Daniel (as chapter 13) by the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. It is one of the additions to Daniel, considered apocryphal by Protestants. It is listed in Article VI of the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England among the books which are included in the Bible but not for the formation of doctrine.[1] It is not included in the Jewish Tanakh and is not mentioned in early Jewish literature. http://bit.ly/Uu9wWh

They shud read too n see paintings,its not just a nude women with small breasts compared to her hips,it s art n history

awesome,

make sense! well information matters otherwise story can change the subject. looks bit mad two elderly hassling the youn girl, does not happen openly otherwise here!!

LUST does not stop at old age ...but we do not see graphic images of it this openly usually !

That iss a great article in Wikipedia ...As the story goes, a fair Hebrew wife named Susanna was falsely accused by lecherous voyeurs. As she bathes in her garden, having sent her attendants away, two lustful elders secretly observe the lovely Susanna. When she makes her way back to her house, they accost her, threatening to claim that she was meeting a young man in the garden unless she agrees to have sex with them. She refuses to be blackmailed and is arrested and about to be put to death for promiscuity when a young man named Daniel interrupts the proceedings, shouting that the elders should be questioned to prevent the death of an innocent. After being separated, the two men are questioned about details (cross-examination) of what they saw but disagree about the tree under which Susanna supposedly met her lover. In the Greek text, the names of the trees cited by the elders form puns with the sentence given by Daniel. The first says they were under a mastic (ὑπο σχίνον, hupo schinon), and Daniel says that an angel stands ready to cut (σχίσει, schisei) him in two. The second says they were under an evergreen oak tree (ὑπο πρίνον, hupo prinon), and Daniel says that an angel stands ready to saw (πρίσαι, prisai) him in two. The great difference in size between a mastic and an oak makes the elders' lie plain to all the observers. The false accusers are put to death, and virtue triumphs. Susanna and the Old Men by Guercino. The Greek puns in the texts have been cited by some as proof that the text never existed in Hebrew or Aramaic, but other researchers have suggested pairs of words for trees and cutting that sound similar enough to suppose that they could have been used in an original. The Anchor Bible uses "yew" and "hew" and "clove" and "cleave" to get this effect in English. Others suggest that the puns were added by the Greek translator and say nothing about the original form of the text. Susanna and the Elders by Alessandro Allori. Susanna and the Elders, by Albrecht Altdorfer. The Greek text survives in two versions. The Septuagint's text appears only in the Codex Chisianus. The version of Theodotion is the one that appears in Roman Catholic bibles. It was regarded as a part of the Daniel literature and was placed at the beginning of the Book of Daniel in manuscripts of the Old Testament. Jerome placed it at the end of Daniel, with a notice that it is not found in the Hebrew Bible. Sextus Julius Africanus did not regard the story as canonical. Jerome (347-420), while translating the Vulgate, treated this section as a non-canonical fable.[3] In his introduction, he indicated that Susanna was an apocryphal addition because it was not written in Hebrew, as was the original book of Daniel, but was written in Greek. Origen observes (in Epistola ad Africanum) that it was "hidden" (compare "apocrypha") by the Jews in some fashion. There are no early Jewish references to the book.

aMore to read ...beautiful old paintings , too!