Peter Paul Rubens, Samson and Delilah

Judges 16 New International Version (NIV

Samson and Delilah

1 One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute. He went in to spend the night with her.

2 The people of Gaza were told, “Samson is here!” So they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They made no move during the night, saying, “At dawn, we’ll kill him.”

3 But Samson lay there only until the middle of the night. Then he got up and took hold of the doors of the city gate, together with the two posts, and tore them loose, bar and all. He lifted them to his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.

4 Sometime later, he fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah.

5 The rulers of the Philistines went to her and said, “See if you can lure him into showing you the secret of his great strength and how we can overpower him so we may tie him up and subdue him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels[a] of silver.”

6 So Delilah said to Samson, “Tell me the secret of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued.”

7 Samson answered her, “If anyone ties me with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, I’ll become as weak as any other man.”

8 Then the rulers of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she tied him with them.

9 With men hidden in the room, she called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” But he snapped the bowstrings as easily as a piece of string snaps when it comes close to a flame. So the secret of his strength was not discovered.

10 Then Delilah said to Samson, “You have made a fool of me; you lied to me. Come now, tell me how you can be tied.”

11 He said, “If anyone ties me securely with new ropes that have never been used, I’ll become as weak as any other man.”

12 So Delilah took new ropes and tied him with them. Then, with men hidden in the room, she called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” But he snapped the ropes off his arms as if they were threads.

13 Delilah then said to Samson, “All this time you have been making a fool of me and lying to me. Tell me how you can be tied.” He replied, “If you weave the seven braids of my head into the fabric on the loom and tighten it with the pin, I’ll become as weak as any other man.” So while he was sleeping, Delilah took the seven braids of his head, wove them into the fabric

14 and tightened it with the pin. Again she called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” He awoke from his sleep and pulled up the pin and the loom, with the fabric.

15 Then she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when you won’t confide in me? This is the third time you have made a fool of me and haven’t told me the secret of your great strength.”

16 With such nagging, she prodded him day after day until he was sick to death of it.

17 So he told her everything. “No razor has ever been used on my head,” he said, “because I have been a Nazirite dedicated to God from my mother’s womb. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man.”

18 When Delilah saw that he had told her everything, she sent word to the rulers of the Philistines, “Come back once more; he has told me everything.” So the rulers of the Philistines returned with the silver in their hands.

19 After putting him to sleep on her lap, she called for someone to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue him. And his strength left him.

20 Then she called, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” He awoke from his sleep and thought, “I’ll go out as before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had left him.

21 Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding grain in the prison.

22 But the hair on his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.

Anthony van Dyck, Samson and Delilah, 1620
Dulwich Picture Gallery, London

Anthony van Dyck, Samson and Delilah, 1628-30
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Jan Lieven, Samson and Delilah, 1630-35
Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

The following pigment analysis is based on the technical examination of the painting in the National Gallery London (1).

1 Delilah’s yellow cloak: The mid-tones are painted in yellow ochre with highlights in lead-tin-yellow. Rubens mixed small amounts of vermilion, carmine, and a translucent yellow pigment in the warmer areas.

2 Delilah’s crimson satin robe: The main pigment in this masterful rendering of drapery is carmine from kermes insects. In the middle tones, the carmine is mixed with vermilion. Strong highlights are painted in lead white and overglazed with a carmine lake. An orange-yellow pigment is incorporated into the paint layer of the satin dress in the warm yellowish area under Delilah’s breasts where the candlelight is reflected.

3 Flesh paint: The pinkish areas of Delilah’s naked flesh are painted with lead white tinted with a little vermilion. For the more neutral creamy areas, Rubens probably used lead white mixed with yellow ochre.

4 Grey-blue coat of the man cutting Samson’s hair: It is surprising that Rubens did not use any blue pigments in this painting. The grey-blue coat is painted in a mixture of lead white, charcoal black, and small amounts of red lake.

5 Purple hanging drapery: Rubens did not employ the obvious and frequently used mixture of blue and red pigments for achieving a purple colour. The drapery is painted in a similar mixture to the one of the grey-blue coat (see nr 4 above) of red lake, charcoal black, and a little lead white. The middle tones are then overglazed by a red lake, the dark shadows are achieved by mixing pure madder lake with coarse charcoal black.

6 Greenish-brown dress of the old woman: the greenish colour is achieved by mixing lead-tin-yellow with carbon black. The brown glaze does not contain any brown pigments but was most probably painted in copper resinate which has discolored with the time

7 The architectural background: complex pigment mixture consisting of carbon black, ochres, red lake and small amounts of vermilion and even some blue verditer (the artificial version of azurite)

8 The red pattern on the carpet: vermilion mixed with red lake 9 Blue pattern on the carpet: lead white and black 10 Greenish borders of the carpet: the paint mixture contains a green pigment, most probably malachite

11 Greenish shadow on Samson’s foot: ochre pigments mixed with vermilion, red lake and blue and green copper carbonates (azurite or blue verditer and malachite or green verditer)

12 Candle flame: lead-tin-yellow

References

1) Plesters, J. ‘”Samson and Delilah”: Rubens and the Art and Craft of Painting on Panel’. National Gallery Technical Bulletin Vol 7, 1983, pp 30–49.

(1) Plesters, J. ‘”Samson and Delilah”: Rubens and the Art and Craft of Painting on Panel’. National Gallery Technical Bulletin Vol 7, 1983, pp 30–49.

(2) Carolien De Staelen, Rubens’s ‘Samson and Delilah’ in the National Gallery: New Facts Relating to Its Provenance, The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 146, No. 1216, Collectors and Patrons (July 2004), pp. 467-469.

(3) Erica Gasparini, The Attribution of Samson and Delilah: Digital Analysis of a Masterpiece, HAIT Master Thesis series nr. 10-004, Tilburg University, Faculty of Humanities, Department of Communication and Information Sciences, Tilburg, The Netherlands, August 2010. Available as pdf.

(4) Christopher Brown, Rubens’ Samson and Delilah, National Gallery London, 1983.

(5) Nico van Hout, Arnout Balis, Rubens Unveiled: Notes on the Masters Painting Technique, Ludion Editions, 2012.