Cornelis Galle I after Peter Paul Rubens

Samson strangling the lion, frontispiece to an edition of the poems written by Urban VIII before his pontificate 'Maphaei S.R.E Cardinalis Barberini Nunc Urbani P.P. VIII Poemata', 1634, Engraving, 176 x 137 mm, The British Museum, London; 1858,0417.1249, Photo: ©️ The Trustees of the British Museum / Art Resource, NY

Ex ore leonis

Commentary by Laura Popoviciu

Cite Share

Cardinal Maffeo Barberini’s (the future Pope Urban VIII’s) collection of Latin poems inspired by biblical themes appeared in fifteen editions during his lifetime. Among these, the one published in Antwerp in 1634 includes a frontispiece with a striking illustration of Samson and the lion, designed by Peter Paul Rubens and engraved by Cornelis Galle I. Why did Rubens choose this iconography for his design, and how does it relate to the content of the publication or the author of the Poemata?

Rubens had already explored the subject of Samson’s fearless encounter with the young lion in a 1628 painting (now in Madrid). Here, he captures the moment when Samson revisits the lion he has killed. As he touches the animal, forcing its jaws open, bees spring out of its mouth.

In the context of the Poemata, the presence of bees invites multiple interpretations. For example, their triangular grouping above Samson’s muscular left arm in this engraving evokes the positioning of the heraldic bees on the coat of arms of the Barberini family.

They also have specifically christological associations. Since antiquity, scientists, philosophers, and theologians have attempted to explain the myth of the spontaneous generation of bees from the corpses of animals, a phenomenon known as bugonia. The apparently miraculous generation of life could function as a metaphor for virgin birth and also for resurrection. A painting, now untraced, is listed in the Barberini inventories with the title Virgin and Child with ‘bees coming from mouth of Madonna’. And Samson’s subjugation of the lion, and the subsequent generation of bees, has been interpreted as a prefiguration of Christ’s triumph over death, and the new life that follows from it.

The visual and textual material relating to the biblical story complement each other in the Poemata. In a poem dedicated to his deceased brother Antonio, Maffeo writes that ‘like Samson, [Antonio] receives sweet honey from the mouth of a slain lion’ (Barberini 1634: 254). The gift of honey thus becomes an emblem and foretaste of the life of heaven.

The associations could be political as well as personal. As an emblem of the resurrected Christ, the virtuous bees reinforce the divine right to papacy, guiding Maffeo’s mission as Pope Urban VIII. His military quest to extend the papal dominions and gain his own independence from Italy has moral echoes of Samson’s mission to free the people of Israel from the Philistines.

 

References

Barberini, Maphaei. 1634. Poemata (Antverpiae: ex officina Plantiniana Balthasarus Moreti)

Judson, J. Richard and Carl van de Velde. 1978. ‘Book Illustrations and Title pages’, in Corpus Rubenianum, 21.1 (London and Philadelphia: Harvey Miller), pp. 283–87

Lavin, Marilyn Aronberg. 1975. Seventeenth-century Barberini documents and inventories of art (New York: New York University Press), pp.53, 555, Doc. 405 (1636)

Reichman, Eric. 2012. ‘The Riddle of Samson and the Spontaneous Generation of Bees: The Bugonia Myth, the Crosspollination that Wasn’t, and the Heter for Honey That Might Have Been’, in Essays for a Jewish Lifetime: Burton D. Morris Jubilee Volume, ed. by Menachem Butler and Marian E. Frankston (New York: Hakirah Press), pp. 1–12

See full exhibition for Judges 14

Judges 14

Revised Standard Version

14 Samson went down to Timnah, and at Timnah he saw one of the daughters of the Philistines. 2Then he came up, and told his father and mother, “I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timnah; now get her for me as my wife.” 3But his father and mother said to him, “Is there not a woman among the daughters of your kinsmen, or among all our people, that you must go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me; for she pleases me well.”

4 His father and mother did not know that it was from the Lord; for he was seeking an occasion against the Philistines. At that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel.

5 Then Samson went down with his father and mother to Timnah, and he came to the vineyards of Timnah. And behold, a young lion roared against him; 6and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he tore the lion asunder as one tears a kid; and he had nothing in his hand. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done. 7Then he went down and talked with the woman; and she pleased Samson well. 8And after a while he returned to take her; and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion, and behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey. 9He scraped it out into his hands, and went on, eating as he went; and he came to his father and mother, and gave some to them, and they ate. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the carcass of the lion.

10 And his father went down to the woman, and Samson made a feast there; for so the young men used to do. 11And when the people saw him, they brought thirty companions to be with him. 12And Samson said to them, “Let me now put a riddle to you; if you can tell me what it is, within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty festal garments; 13but if you cannot tell me what it is, then you shall give me thirty linen garments and thirty festal garments.” And they said to him, “Put your riddle, that we may hear it.” 14And he said to them,

“Out of the eater came something to eat.

Out of the strong came something sweet.”

And they could not in three days tell what the riddle was.

15 On the fourth day they said to Samson’s wife, “Entice your husband to tell us what the riddle is, lest we burn you and your father’s house with fire. Have you invited us here to impoverish us?” 16And Samson’s wife wept before him, and said, “You only hate me, you do not love me; you have put a riddle to my countrymen, and you have not told me what it is.” And he said to her, “Behold, I have not told my father nor my mother, and shall I tell you?” 17She wept before him the seven days that their feast lasted; and on the seventh day he told her, because she pressed him hard. Then she told the riddle to her countrymen. 18And the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down,

“What is sweeter than honey?

What is stronger than a lion?”

And he said to them,

“If you had not plowed with my heifer,

you would not have found out my riddle.”

19And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he went down to Ashʹkelon and killed thirty men of the town, and took their spoil and gave the festal garments to those who had told the riddle. In hot anger he went back to his father’s house. 20And Samson’s wife was given to his companion, who had been his best man.

More Exhibitions