“Susanna and the Elders” in question: a biblical episode, its representations and relations with the government of justice in the Ancien Régime (16 th -17 th centuries)

ABSTRACT Based on the biblical episode known as “Susanna and the Elders”, contained in the book of Daniel, this article proposes a set of questions to discuss the reasons why this history was so represented by painters, especially between the mid-16th and the following century, in several regions of Europe. The axiological argument is that this episode establishes close relations with the exercise of the king’s justice, exactly at a time when European monarchies sought not only to give centrality to the government of justice, but also to instrumentalize art as a potential technology for its solutions for legality and conservation. In conclusion, the article reaches the idea that the episode was manipulated, in the moralizing sphere, to discipline social behaviors, especially of women; while, in the legal sphere, to undermine the legitimacy of applying summary or private justice, strengthening the primacy of a king’s justice.