Samson
1630–31
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 135.6 × 102.8 cm
- Status
- In Museum Collection
- Collect24 Art ID
- C24-109851
The Old Testament hero Samson rests his head on his hand in a pensive, even melancholic pose. Objects on the table recall two of his heroic deeds: he killed a lion with his bare hands, and liberated the Israelites by slaughtering a thousand Philistines with a donkey’s jawbone. Samson’s cuirass, or breastplate, is joined at the shoulder by a clasp in the form of two bees—the emblem of the Barberini family, who commissioned the painting around 1630. In 1627, the Barberini had engaged Valentin to paint another biblical hero, David victorious with the head of Goliath; the canvas depicting Samson …
Provenance
Marlatt Fund, 1972.50
Registry history
- 1630–31 — Recorded in the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
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