  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.
  
  
  
  
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  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
  
  
  Copyright
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