Samson and Delilah (Rubens)
Samson and Delilah | |
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Artist | Peter Paul Rubens |
Year | c. 1609–1610 |
Type | Oil on wood |
Dimensions | 185 cm × 205 cm (73 in × 81 in) |
Location | National Gallery, London |
Samson and Delilah is a painting long attributed to the Flemish Baroque artist Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) in the National Gallery, London. It dates from about 1609 to 1610.
Two preliminary copies of the painting exist today: an ink-and-wash drawing on paper, and an oil sketch on wood panel. The oil sketch is in the Cincinnati Art Museum, while the ink sketch is held by a private collection in Amsterdam.
Samson and Delilah (sketch) | |
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Artist | Peter Paul Rubens |
Year | c. 1609 |
Medium | Oil on panel |
Dimensions | 52.1 cm × 50.5 cm (20.5 in × 19.9 in) |
Location | Cincinnati Art Museum |
Description
Rubens depicts the moment when, Samson having fallen asleep on Delilah's lap, a young man cuts Samson's hair. Samson and Delilah are in a dark room, which is lit mostly by a candle held by an old woman to Delilah's left. Delilah is shown fully dressed, but with her breasts exposed. Her left hand is on top of Samson's right shoulder, as his left arm is draped over her legs. The man snipping Samson's hair is crossing his hands, which is a sign of betrayal. Philistine soldiers can be seen in the right-hand background of the painting.[1] The niche behind Delilah contains a statue of Venus, the goddess of love, and her son, Cupid. Notably, Cupid's mouth is bound, rather than his eyes. This statue can be taken to represent the cause of Samson's fate and the tool of Delilah's actions.
The painting depicts an episode from the
Provenance
The painting was originally commissioned by
The painting was earlier attributed to the Dutch painter Gerard van Honthorst, a painter who, like Rubens, worked in Rome in the shadow of Caravaggio at the start of the 17th century.
There has been some doubt cast over the attribution of the painting to Rubens, led by Euphrosyne Doxiadis, an artist and scholar of the Fayum mummy portraits. She argues that the National Gallery's painting varies in details from copies of the original made during Rubens's lifetime, that it does not employ the layering technique of glazing common in oil painting at the time and mastered by Rubens, and that its provenance can not be documented with certainty between 1641 and 1929. A dendrochronological examination of the painting, however, confirms that the painting dates to the correct period, and the attribution has been accepted by a majority of the art-historical scholarly community.
However, in September 2021, an artificial intelligence analysis conducted by Dr Carina Popovici and Art Recognition, a Swiss company based near Zurich, seemed to confirm doubters' beliefs when it was announced there is a 91% probability that the painting was not the work of Rubens.[4]
Painting materials
The painting was cleaned and investigated in the National Gallery in 1983.
Derivative works
Jacob Matham, a Haarlem printmaker, used the Cincinnati oil sketch of Samson and Delilah as a modello for an engraving he made c. 1613. The engraving is a reverse image of Samson and Delilah.[7]
The painting of Samson and Delilah can be seen in Frans Fracken the Younger's painting Banquet at the House of Burgomaster Rockox, where the painting is hanging above the mantelpiece. Notably, this 17th-century depiction of the original Rubens painting shows Samson's foot included wholly within the frame of the composition. Compared to it the National Gallery's version is cropped on both left and right sides. Also, there are five soldiers in the doorway compared to three in Francken's picture and in early engravings.
See also
Notes
- ^ Rubens, Peter Paul, Marjorie E. Wieseman, Bernard Van Hout, and Peter C. Sutton. Drawn by the Brush: Oil Sketches by Peter Paul Rubens. New Haven: Yale UP, 2004. 88-93. Print.
- ^ Plesters, Joyce. “'Samson and Delilah': Rubens and the Art and Craft of Painting on Panel.” National Gallery Technical Bulletin, vol. 7, 1983, pp. 30–49.
- ^ De Staelen, Carolien. “Rubens's 'Samson and Delilah' in the National Gallery: New Facts Relating to Its Provenance.” The Burlington Magazine, vol. 146, no. 1216, 2004, pp. 467–469.
- ^ The Guardian, "Was famed Samson and Delilah really painted by Rubens? No, says AI", [1]
- ^ Plesters, J. ‘”Samson and Delilah”: Rubens and the Art and Craft of Painting on Panel’. National Gallery Technical Bulletin Vol. 7, 1983, pp. 30–49.
- ^ Rubens, Samson and Delilah, ColourLex
- ^ Logan, Anne-Marie S., Michiel C. Plomp, and Peter Paul. Rubens. Peter Paul Rubens: The Drawings. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005. 124-27. Print.
Further reading
- Xenia Ressos, Samson und Delila in der Kunst von Mittelalter und Früher Neuzeit (= Studien zur internationalen Architektur- und Kunstgeschichte, Band 108), Imhof, Petersberg 2014, ISBN 978-3-86568-843-9
- Christopher Brown, Rubens’ Samson and Delilah, London: National Gallery, 1983