Suzanne et les Vieillards: A Multidisciplinary Exploration of Biblical Narrative in Art

The collection 'Triptyque' from Desclée de Brouwer presents a unique format: a theologian, an art historian, and a writer each contribute to a biblical chapter. In this volume on Suzanne and the Elders, Joëlle Ferry handles the religious and theological aspects, focusing on legal and moral dimensions. Joséphine le Foll surveys artistic representations, notably analyzing works by Tintoret, Rembrandt, and Manet, with particular attention to the gaze and the object of art as a viewer. She offers a subtle reading of Rembrandt's painting in The Hague, where an added strip gives one elder an eye, replacing an originally intended nose, which she interprets as a censorship that neutralizes phallic symbolism. Jacques Henric contributes a fictional narrative that reverses the biblical plot: a film scenario about Suzanne that fails, the narrator's struggle to communicate with Julia, the former love cast as the star, and the anxiety of sexual impotence affecting both the narrator and Tintoret. However, these figures of powerlessness transform into triumph as the creative power of Tintoret remains unaffected, culminating in a vibrant letter from Suzanne of Babylon to Tintoret in Venice, reaffirming the desiring force of the Bible, fiction, and painting.