Susannah and elders

Seen from behind, a nude woman kneels on a rock outcrop, glancing over her shoulder while holding a large white cloth that a crouching man grips at its other end. A second man crouches beside him in a red T-shirt, arm raised as if giving a command. Behind them, a hazy valley stretches toward distant water and smoldering ground.

The palette moves from cool violet-grey shadow on the woman's back to warm ochre and glowing orange in the smoky distance. Light falls softly across the scene, blurring the horizon into atmospheric haze while the three figures stay crisply modeled. Contemporary dress on the men against the classical pose of the woman gives the biblical subject a staged, present-day tension.