Samson and Delilah

The story of Samson, the hero of Israel dedicated to God, is told in the Old Testament, in Judges 13–16. He owed his superhuman strength to the fact that his hair had never been cut. Delilah cut off seven locks while he was asleep, and handed him over to his enemies, the Philistines. It is this fateful scene that the piece illustrates. The Flemish sculptor Artus Quellinus the Elder was the most prominent member of a family of baroque sculptors. In all probability he crafted this figural group, which was designed to be viewed from all sides, shortly after his return from Italy in 1639/40. The bare, muscular back of the sleeping hero required a familiarity with the famous Torso of the Belvedere in the Vatican. But the painting of the same title (National Gallery, London) by his friend Peter Paul Rubens equally served as a model.