This atmospheric and powerful drawing, in which the artist has placed great emphasis on the form of the vulnerable Susanna and on her emotional anguish, while only very lightly sketching in the tormenting Elders either side, can be compared with various interpretations of the same subject by Hendrick Goltzius, and also with some of his drawings from the period around 1607. Though previously thought to be an Italian drawing, it seems a convincing and significant addition to the known drawings by this endlessly inventive and inspired master of Dutch Mannerism.
Goltzius’s earliest depictions of this subject were an engraving of 1583, and another design engraved by Saenredam before 1598/9. In both – perhaps, as Larry Nichols suggests, reflecting knowledge of Cornelis van Haarlem's painting of 1601/02 in Ottawa1 – the artist placed both Elders on the same side of Susanna, but when he came to revisit the subject in oils, first in the painting of 1607, now in Douai (fig.1)2 and then in 1615, in a canvas now in Boston3, the arrangement of the figures was as here. In the Douai painting, the Elder on the left is bearded, and the one on the right is a portrait of Jan Govertsz van der Aar, and although the features of the Elders in this drawing are not well defined, there is some overall resemblance to those in the painting.
In terms of drawing style, the most telling comparison is with a study of a standing fisherman, signed and dated 1607, in which we find exactly the same abbreviation of features that we see here in the figures of the Elders, and also the same overall softness of chalk.4 Another drawing of 1607 in the Albertina, possibly representing an allegory of Hearing5, though executed in red and black chalk, with more clearly defined outlines, shows a similar sketchy mistiness in large parts of the background, as does the Holy Family, in Weimar.6 The physiognomy, in both face and body, of the figure of Susanna is also very Goltzius-like, as is the sparking but highly effective use of darker chalk accents in her cascading hair.
In sum, this drawing is not in every way totally typical of Goltzius’s style, but there are enough small-scale similarities in details and large-scale reflections of Goltzius’s characteristic approach that it seems reasonable to conclude that this is a significant working study made by Goltzius as he was developing the commission for the 1607 painting in Douai.
1. L. W. Nichols, The Paintings of Hendrick Goltzius, Doornspijk 2013, fig. 61
2. Douai, Musée de la Chartreuse, inv. 2800; Nichols, op. cit., pl.11, cat. A-9
3. Boston, Museum of Replica Handbags s, inv. no. 2000.974; Nichols, cit., pl. 45, cat. A-10
4. E.K.J. Reznicek, Die Zeichnungen von Hendrick Goltzius, Utrecht 1961, vol. I, p. 461, no. 191a, reproduced vol. II, fig. 452
5. Nichols, op.cit., fig. 7
6. Reznicek, op.cit., no. K 29