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Samson and Delilah is a painting by the Flemish Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). It...

Samson and Delilah is a painting by the Flemish Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). It dates from about 1609 to 1610. The painting depicts an episode from the Old Testament story of Samson and Delilah (Judges 16). Samson, having fallen in love with Delilah, tells her the secret of his great strength: his uncut hair. Rubens portrays the moment, when having fallen asleep on Delilah's lap, a servant proceeds to cut Samsons hair. After, a weakened Samson is arrested by Philistine soldiers. The soldiers can be seen in the right-hand background of the painting. The niche behind Delilah contains a statue of the Venus, the Goddess of love and her son, Cupid. This can be taken to represent the cause of Samson's fate. The old woman standing behind her, providing further light for the scene, does not appear in the biblical narrative of Samson and Delilah. She is believed to be a procuress, and the adjacent profiles of her and Delilah may symbolise the old woman's past, and Delilah's future. The painting was commissioned by Nicolaas Rockox, alderman of Antwerp, Belgium, for his town house. The painting was sold when Rockox died in 1640, eventually forming part of the Liechtenstein