Brought to Light Australian Art 1850-1965

THE JUDGING OF SUSANNAH Daphne Mayo Susannah Bronwyn Mahoney Facing page Daphne Mayo Australia 1895-1982 Susannah 1946 cast 1995 r p ■ he apocryphal story of Susannah and the Elders has been a recurring theme in art since early Christian times, and became especially popular during the Renaissance.1In the early Church, the story of the Elders' false accusation of adultery against Susannah, and her salvation due to Daniel's shrewdness, became the symbol of the saved soul, and she was habitually depicted in the art of the catacombs as a lamb between two wolves.2 Bronze 171x65.5x51 cm Commissioned by the Queensland Art Gallery 1995 from a cast gifted by the beneficiaries of the artist's estate 1981 with funds from the Queensland Art Gallery Society. Celebrating the Queensland Art However, later representations of Susannah and the Elders often had more to do with gratuitous depictions of the female form than with feminine virtue. For example, in Rubens's painting Susannah and the Elders 1636, Susannah is pictured as dramatically vulnerable to the leering elders. In other works Susannah was frequently portrayed as a seductress and, rather than examining her moral dilemma, many artists characterised her as the transgressor, with the voyeurs cast as heroes. As the feminist art historian Mary Garrard remarks of these images: It is, indeed, a remarkable testament to the indomitable male ego that a biblical theme holding forth an exemplum of female chastity should have become in paindng a celebration of sexual opportunity .3 The Queensland sculptor Daphne Mayo employed the story of Susannah in her work on two occasions: plaster maquettes for Susannah and some Elders were completed in 1942, and in 1946 the artist produced a life-size plaster of Susannah, as a singular figure (Queensland Art Gallery). In biblical legend Susannah was the wife of a wealthy, hospitable Babylonian. Among the citizens who frequently Gallery's Centenary 1895-1995 Right Daphne Mayo's maquette of Susannah and some Elders, from Society of Artists Book, Society of Artists (Sydney, NSW), Ure Smith, Sydney, 1942, P-23 gathered at their home were two elders of the community (sometimes referred to as judges) who desired Susannah and waited for an opportunity to find her alone. When she took her bath in the garden, the elders approached her and threatened that if she did not submit to them, they would proclaim that they had witnessed her adultery. Although the punishment for adultery was death by stoning, Susannah would not be intimidated, announcing she would rather die than 'sin in the sight of the Lord'. When the elders spread the rumour of her infidelity, Susannah was brought before the people and condemned. The young Daniel examined the elders separately; they gave conflicting answers to his questions, thereby revealing themselves as false witnesses, for which they were put to death.4 In 1942 Daphne Mayo exhibited the maquettes for her interpretation of the Susannah tale at the Society of Artists' exhibition in Sydney. Mayo included three elders as opposed to the customary two, and though this may have been a purely formal decision, it is intriguing to read Mayo's Susannah and some Elders as a commentary by the artist on her complex relationship with the art world, particularly that of Sydney. As Graeme Sturgeon points out, sculpture in Australia was primarily a male domain, and consequently 'it took an unusual degree of perseverance and skill for a woman to gain any training or to earn a reputation'.5 When Daphne Mayo won a gold medal for sculpture at London's Royal Academy in 1923, her victory was reported in 196 BROUGHT TO LIGHT: Australian Art 1850-1965