Title: Wall Painting with Saint Sosənna (Susanna) and Her Persecutors

Date: second half 17th century

Culture: Ethiopian (Gondar, Ethiopia)

Medium: Paint on canvas remounted on cotton, fixed to frame during conservation

Dimensions: 27 3/4 × 19 5/16 × 1 in., 2.6 lb. (70.5 × 49 × 2.5 cm, 1.2 kg)

Classification: Paintings-Icons

Credit Line: Musée du Quai Branly–Jacques Chirac, Paris (71.1931.74.3586)

Object No. AFB.300


On the wall of the church was an image of Saint Susanna taunted by her persecutors for having been propositioned by two old men while she was bathing. The inscription above says, "How the elders seized Susanna." Her biography, which presented her as an exemplar of chastity and purity, was well-known in Christian texts along the Nile valley.

This painting might have been left incomplete: The saint’s cloak has not been colored in; the patterns of her dress are incomplete; a knot at the chest has been added; and the clothes and shoes of her persecutors are also unfinished.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/855023