Delilah’s Betrayal and Samson’s Imprisonment by the Philistines

The large wooden panel is worthy of special consideration, as only three Paintings by the artists, who was forced into exile in Frankfurt/M. given his faith, have survived. There is proof for almost all stages of the work’s origin, from its purchase in 1693 by Elector Palatine Johann Wilhelm through to today. This piece was the very first painting in the Düsseldorf collection. In the Bible, Delilah is condemned because she betrayed her lover Samson for base reasons and got him to reveal to her the secret of his superhuman strength. Here she is additionally accused, as the scissors with which she robbed Samson of his power-giving locks is then used by the Philistines to blind him. The depiction pointed the way for Rembrandt’s The Blinding of Samson (Städel Museum, Frankfurt /M.) and emphasizes with the dramatic struggle the most exciting moment in the tale, that between Samson as a free man and his imprisonment. The artist does not shy away from complex overlaps and yet adheres strictly to a central vanishing point. (Bettina Baumgärtel)