Samson and Delilah

1766

Pompeo Girolamo Batoni Italian, 1708-1787

On View

European: Grand Tour of Italy, Level 2, South Wing

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Published References

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Catalogue Raisonné

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About the Artwork

Samson and Delilah portrays the crucial moment in the Old Testament narrative in which Delilah has clipped off the long locks of the Israelite warrior. At the urging of his rivals, the Philistines, Delilah had tricked Samson into revealing that his hair was the source of his superhuman strength. Still holding a pair of shears in one hand, she signals with the other toward the band of soldiers waiting to overpower the fallen hero. Known primarily for his portraits of wealthy British tourists abroad, Pompeo Batoni also produced history paintings such as this one, depicting moralizing subjects drawn from historical and religious sources. By the mid-1750s, his narrative paintings had become so costly that only the wealthiest visitors to Rome could afford them.

Title Samson and Delilah

Artwork Date 1766

Artist Pompeo Girolamo Batoni

Life Dates 1708-1787

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. Italian

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. ----------

Medium Oil on canvas

Dimensions Framed: 93 1/2 × 68 1/4 × 3 11/16 inches (237.5 × 173.4 × 9.4 cm)

Classification Paintings

Department European Painting

Credit Museum Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 2003.31

Markings

Signed Signed and dated, on the frame of the bed, at the lower right: P. BATONI PINXIT/ROMAE ANNO 1766

Provenance

private collection (Europe);
1987-2003, (Matthiesen Gallery, London, England);
2003-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

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Exhibition History

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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

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Published References

The Settecento: Italian Rococo and Early Neo-Classical Paintings, 1700–1800. Exh. cat., Matthiesen Gallery. London, 1987, pp. 92–94, no. 16 (ill.), (pl. 17) (ill.).

Brigstocke, Hugh. "The Settecento at Matthiesen, London." The Burlington Magazine 129, no. 1017 (1987): pp. 820, 821, (fig. 38) (ill.).

"New Acquisitions." Bulletin of the DIA 78, no. 3/4 (2004): pp. 24, 28 (ill.).

Bissell, R. Ward, Andria Derstine and Dwight Miller. Masters of Italian Baroque Painting: The Detroit Institute of Arts. London, 2005, pp. 11; pp. 26–27, no. 8 (ill.).

Bowron, Edgar Peters. Pompeo Batoni: A Complete Catalogue of His Paintings, vol. 1. New Haven, 2016, pp. 382–383, no. 309 (ill.).

Derstine, Andria. "The Detroit Institute of Arts and Italian Baroque Painting." In Buying Baroque: Italian Seventeenth-Century Paintings Come to America, ed. Edgar Peters Bowron. University Park, 2017, p. 102.

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Catalogue Raisoneé

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Credit Line for Reproduction

Pompeo Girolamo Batoni, Samson and Delilah, 1766, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Museum Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund, 2003.31.