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Samson and Delilah
Also titled Simson en Delila
Jan Lievens (Leiden, 1607–1674)
c. 1626 - c. 1627
- Medium
- canvas, oil paint (paint)
- Classification
- painting
- Dimensions
- outer size: depth 8 cm (support incl. SK-L-4365)
- Museum
- Rijksmuseum
- Rights
- Public Domain Mark, as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its museum says too little about what it shows to place it for younger viewers. How works are placed
About this work
Delilah seduced Samson into telling her the secret of his superhuman strength, the source of which lay in his long hair. Lievens painted Samson asleep on Delilah’s lap. She hands a pair of scissors to the frightened man so that he can cut off Samson’s hair. In their early years, Lievens and Rembrandt – who shared a workshop – regularly looked at one another’s work. Rembrandt’s influence can be discerned in the expressive rendering of the faces.
