Samson (1630–31): Art, History and Details

Samson (1630–31) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Valentin de Boulogne (French, 1591–1632).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

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 was designed to be its pendant.

Object facts

• Title: Samson
• Date: 1630–31
• Creator attribution: Valentin de Boulogne (French, 1591–1632)
• Culture: France
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on canvas
• Dimensions: Framed: 157 x 125 x 7 cm (61 13/16 x 49 3/16 x 2 3/4 in.); Unframed: 135.6 x 102.8 cm (53 3/8 x 40 1/2 in.)
• Collection: P - French 17th Century
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1972.50

A detail from the museum

The figure of Samson was likely a self-portrait of the artist.

Collection credit

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• “A Grandi Costruttori…Impresa Almagià”
• Ramdohr, Friedrich Wilhelm Basilius von. Ueber Mahlerei und Bildhauerarbeit in Rom: für Liebhaber des Schoenen in der Kunst. Leipzig, Germany: Bei Weibmanns Erben und Reich, 1787.
• Nibby, A. Itinéraire de Rome et de Ses Environs. Rome: [publisher not identified], 1842.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.