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Compare Delilah’s pale, relaxed body on the bed at left with Samson’s straining back as the soldiers drag him away.
Rubens painted this panel as a sketch for a larger picture commissioned by Nicolas Rockox, the mayor of Antwerp. Delilah has had Samson’s hair cut, taking away his strength, and soldiers seize him as he wakes. His twisting pose comes from ancient Roman sculpture, and the sharp contrasts of light and dark recall Tintoretto, whose Tarquin and Lucretia also hangs in this museum.
Oil on panel · 50.4 × 66.4 cm · Art Institute of Chicago · Baroque
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Details and source
- Museum title
- The Capture of Samson
- Artist
- Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577-1640)
- Date
- 1609–10
- Medium
- Oil on panel
- Dimensions
- 50.4 × 66.4 cm (19 3/4 × 26 1/8 in.); Framed: 73.3 × 89.5 × 12.1 cm (28 7/8 × 35 1/4 × 4 3/4 in.)
- Credit line
- Robert A. Waller Memorial Fund
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Art Institute of Chicago
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.