of the virgin martyr. Duquesnoy, as expressed in his maniera greca theory, believed that the best ancient draped statues were those that "remained closest to the purity of the Greek nude through the use of thin, body-revealing drapery." As recorded by Duquesnoy's pupil Boselli, "[The ancients] did not have another aim, nor other end, or intention, than to dress the nude while showing it, to cover it by displaying it" and "one must drape with suitable and lovely folds... the antique made draped figures as if they were nude." Although Duquesnoy drew inspiration from Greek sculpture, his was still an imaginative vision based on his own perception of the latter's characteristics. Although the opus has been tentatively compared to other sculptures present in Rome by contemporaries, he in fact produced a completely new and quite original aesthetic object, based on his own perception, wherein traits of both valuable Roman sculpture and ancient Greek ones were combined. Duquesnoy "went well beyond simple imitation to recombine and transform his sources in accordance with his understanding of the verisimilitude, emotive power, and material refinement of ancient Greek art." Critical reception and influence Despite the St. Susanna's considerable impact on the art world in contemporary Rome, the statue was little known outside the eternal city. Rubens, in writing to Duquesnoy to thank him for the casts of the Van den Eynde's putti the Fiammingo had sent to him, did indeed compliment him for the beauty of the Eynde's putti, and he did refer to the fame of Duquesnoy's St. Andrew, but he did not mention the St. Susanna at all. It was not until the 18th century that the Saint Susanna was discovered by a broader international audience. In the 17th century, copies of the statue were very rare, even within Rome. In 1736, however, Nicolas Wleughels, excited by the statue's beauty and the prospect of sending a copy of it to France, where the statue was "certainly unknown", decided to ask the Baker's Guild to remove the statue from its niche, in order to make copies of it. A copy in marble by Guillaume Coustou was completed and sent to Paris in 1739, where it was installed in the Hall of Antiquities of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture at the Louvre. This gave the statue first international recognition, precipitating a surge of interest for the latter, which over the next decades