The denunciation of Susanna
Johann Peter Abesch, Sursee, around 1721.
Glass panel painted on reverse in opaque and transparent pigments. Signed lower left "Jo. Pet. von. Esch. pinxit". With minor localised retouches. Softwood frame gilded over plaster ground, H 68, W 91 cm.
This reverse glass painting follows the engraving by Jean Audran (1667 - 1756) after a painting by Antoine Coypel (1661 - 1722), which today hangs in the Museo del Prado in Madrid (acc. no. P002247).
The depiction shows the scene in which the two elders testify falsely against Susanna in court so that she is to be sentenced to death (Daniel 13:28). However, the truth comes to light through Daniel's courageous intervention, and Susanna is spared whilst the two elders are condemned.
Johann Peter Abesch, born in Ettiswil in 1666, was one of the most important reverse glass painters of the 17th and early 18th centuries. About 85 signed reverse glass paintings from him are known. From 1710 to 1723, he was commissioned by the town of Sursee to create four large-format oil paintings on canvas for the Sursee market and town hall, based on French prints. Among them was this depiction of Susanna before the judges, along with the Judgment of Solomon (1710), Esther before Ahasuer (1722) and the Stoning of the Sabbath Defiler (1723).
Johann Peter Abesch had the unique ability to imbue his reverse glass paintings with the grandesse of large-scale works on canvas. After the Swiss tradition of donating windows and armorial panels had ended in around 1700, Johann Peter Abesch used the time-honoured technique to break new ground. He brought reverse glass painting in Sursee to international attention.
Provenance
W. Fröhlich, St. Gallen.
Private ownership, Switzerland.
Auctioned by Piasa, Paris 1998.
Auctioned by Koller, Zurich 2017.
Literature
Cf. Staffelbach, Geschichte der Luzerner Hinterglasmalerei von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart, Lucerne 1951, pl. 97, for a reverse glass painting after Coypel by Anna Barbara Abesch in the Schweizerische Landesmuseum Zurich, dated 1740.
Cf. Berthelier/Geyssant, La peinture sous verre un art ancien toujours actuel, Chartres 2011, p. 44.
Cf. a further reverse glass painting with the same motif by Anna Maria Franziska Pfyffer von Altishofen von Sonnenberg, a pupil of Johann Peter Abesch (auctioned by Nagel, Stuttgart 2019).