CODART, Dutch and Flemish art in museums worldwide

Susanna – From Middle Ages to #MeToo

Exhibition: 5 October 2024 - 23 March 2025

Museum Gouda is organizing an exhibition about Susanna and the Elders. In this biblical story (Daniel 13:1-64), two powerful men try to blackmail Susanna as she takes a bath. When she does not give in to their advances, they accuse her of being unfaithful. Susanna refuses and is indeed brought to trial, but Daniel’s intervention prevents her conviction. In other words, Me Too avant la lettre.

Joachim Wtewael (1566-1638), Susanna and the Elders, ca. 1605
Museum Gouda, Gouda

This relatively unknown biblical story has become world famous because Susanna has been recorded countless times in the history of art. From Rembrandt van Rijn and Artemisia Gentileschi to contemporary artists, she has been portrayed as a victim, a model of piety and virtue, or even a sex symbol.

The exhibition is a follow-up to the successful show at the Walraff-Richartz Museum in Cologne, which also included Joachim Wtewael’s Susanna from the collection of Museum Gouda.