Description

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.

Provenance

Possibly Marchése Tommaso Raggi [1595/6-1676], Genoa and Rome, and descendents (After 1621-at least 1701); [possibly] in the collection of the Ruspoli family, Rome, until sold to an art dealer (before 1967); (Dealer, Rome, sold to the Hazlitt Gallery) (until 1967); (Hazlitt Gallery, London, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) (Until 1968); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio (1968-)

Samson and Delilah

Gerrit van Honthorst

c. 1616

Accession Number

1968.23

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

Framed: 158.4 x 122.5 x 11.8 cm (62 3/8 x 48 1/4 x 4 5/8 in.); Case: 139.7 x 177.8 x 28 cm (55 x 70 x 11 in.); Unframed: 129 x 94 cm (50 13/16 x 37 in.)