The Capture of Samson (1609–10): Artwork and History

The Capture of Samson (1609–10) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577-1640).

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

This panel, made as a sketch for a larger painting commissioned by the mayor of Antwerp, Nicolas Rockox, demonstrates the influence of the ancient and modern art Peter Paul Rubens studied in Italy. The subject comes from a story in the Hebrew Bible in which the mighty Samson awakes to find that his lover, Delilah, has cut off his hair, the source of his strength. Rubens drew from ancient Roman sculpture for Samson’s contorted pose as he is captured by soldiers, while the strong contrast of light and dark recalls the work of 16th-century Italian painter Tintoretto—for example, Tarquin and Lucretia.

Object facts

• Title: The Capture of Samson
• Date: 1609–10
• Artist attribution: Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577-1640)
• Place of origin: Flanders
• Medium: Oil on panel
• Dimensions: 50.4 × 66.4 cm (19 3/4 × 26 1/8 in.); Framed: 73.3 × 89.5 × 12.1 cm (28 7/8 × 35 1/4 × 4 3/4 in.)
• Type: Painting
• Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe
• Reference number: 1923.551

Collection credit

Robert A. Waller Memorial Fund

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The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.