Paintings
Samson and Delilah
Painting
Details
- Author / creator
- Gerrit van Honthorst (Dutch, 1592–1656)
- Object type
- Painting
- Date or period
- c. 1616
- Dimensions summary
- Framed: 158.4 × 122.5 × 11.8 cm; Case: 139.7 × 177.8 × 28 cm; Unframed: 129 × 94 cm
- Support
- Canvas
- Paint medium
- Oil
- Place of origin
- Netherlands
- Acquisition method
- Purchase
- Credit line
- Purchased with the Art Fund grant and Friends of the Ashcombe Museum, 1968
- Image rights
- Public domain (CC0)
About this object
In retaliation for Samson’s single-handed decimation of their army, the Philistines bribed his lover Delilah to discover the source of his strength: his hair, uncut since birth. Samson’s hair was shorn as he lay sleeping in Delilah’s lap, draining his strength and allowing the Philistines to capture him. Honthorst intensified the inherent drama of the scene by limiting his depiction to just three closely packed figures, starkly illuminated by a single candle. The old woman’s silencing gesture involves the viewer in the action, making us complicit in Delilah’s deceit.
Materials and technique
Oil on canvas
