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Suzanna and the Elders 4 (2022) Drawing by Edwin Loftus
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This image is available for download with a licence
Seller Edwin Loftus
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Original Artwork (One Of A Kind)
Drawing,
Pastel
on Cardboard
- Dimensions Height 17in, Width 11in
- Artwork's condition The artwork is in perfect condition
- Framing This artwork is not framed
- Categories Drawings under $5,000 Symbolism Politics
Evil elders have contrived to coerce the fair and virtuous Suzanna into having sex with them. They spy on her in her bath and then threaten to accuse her of soliciting them if she won't yield to their desires. She refuses and is tried and found guilty of adulterous behavior based on the elders' reputations and description of a blemish in an intimate area that Suzanna admits to having. They have intimate knowledge and how it was obtained is their word against hers.
As she is being led to execution, God whispers in the ear of Stephen, one of the judges. Stephen orders her brought back in for further examination and proceeds to rip her gown from her body. Lo and behold, God has removed her blemish and she stands naked before the court, her body as pure and unblemished as her soul.
Stephen proclaims her innocence, and the elders are subjected to the same fate they would have seen her suffer.
Civilization depends on trust in the good faith of human beings. When honesty is given great value, civilization tends to work. But when it is not given great value, civilization tends to crumble. Giving false testimony to the enforcers of law or the judges of guilt has been considered among the greatest violations of civil order since as far back as we have any records.
In Hammurabi's codex it is the 3rd Law that they who give false testimony shall be subject to the penalty their falsehood would have imposed on their victim.
In the Laws of the Roman Republic, it is the 10th and it calls for false testifiers to "be cast down from the top of the Tarpean cliffs." (No one knows where that is today, but presumably, it was a sentence to death or disability).
In the Ten Commandments it is the 9th and considered a "mortal sin."
Today, in many countries, there are efforts to ignore or eliminate penalties for false testimony, mostly in those societies dominated by central government power. They do not want any authority to compete with their own and that includes God, tradition, and even Common Sense. There are few powers of governments over their subjects more potent and more common than the power to lie about their opponents without concern that they will be punished for it. You probably all know examples of this from your own governments, as do I, from mine.
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Edwin Loftus is an American painter and draftsman born in 1951. His interest in art began at the age of 4 when he decided to draw something real rather than working from his imagination.
As a child he excelled at drawing and as a teenager he began to experiment with oil painting. In college, he took courses in art and art history and realized that true art had nothing to do with the quality of the drawing or painting, but that it had to have the ambition to push the boundaries and expand the visual experience.
He also studied philosophy, psychology and history and quickly realized that it was just another art establishment trying to defend its elitist industry and reward system. Their skills were almost non-existent, they knew nothing about psychology, perception or stimulus response, and they were extensions of the belief system that made communism, fascism and other forms of totalitarianism such destructive forces in the world. They literally believe that art shouldn't be available to ordinary human beings, but only to an elite "sophisticated" enough to understand it.
Edwin Loftus realized that the emperors of art had no clothes, but they were still the emperors. Gifted in art, he worked hard to acquire this skill. So he found other ways to make a living and sold a few artworks from time to time. For sixty years, many people enjoyed his works and some collected them.
Today, Edwin Loftus is retired. Even if he sold all his paintings for the price he asked, "artist" would be the lowest paid job he ever had... but that's the way it is. It won't matter to him after he dies. He just hopes that some people will like what he does enough to enjoy it in the future.
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Nationality:
UNITED STATES
- Date of birth : 1951
- Artistic domains: Works by artists with a certified artist value,
- Groups: Certified Artists Contemporary American Artists
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