Susanna and the Elders

This panel once formed part of the decoration of a cassone, an elaborately decorated wooden chest often commissioned as a wedding gift to a bride from her groom's family. The Old Testament story of Susanna and the Elders was a common subject for cassoni during the fifteenth century as an example of a young wife's protection of her virtue. Susanna was falsely accused of adultery by two men after she spurned their advances. The Zimmerli's painting, showing Susanna being harassed by the elders while she bathes, formed the middle section of a long panel showing other moments in the Susanna story. Other sections of the panel are in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore and the Capodimonte Museum in Naples, Italy.