Anthony van Dyck

Samson and Delilah (Capture of Samson), c.1628–30, Oil on canvas, 146 x 254 cm, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna; 512, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria / Bridgeman Images

Tragic Lovers

Commentary by David Jasper

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It is difficult to identify exactly what moment in the biblical narrative Anthony van Dyck may have sought to evoke here.

The Philistines appear to be binding Samson with ropes—though in Judges 16:12 it is Delilah herself who does the binding and Samson immediately snaps the ropes. Later, in Judges 16:21, the Philistines bring him to Gaza, where he is bound a second time with bronze fetters. But Samson’s head was shaved before he was transferred to Gaza, so Anthony van Dyck’s inclusion of Delilah’s couch at the bottom left of the picture, with a pair of scissors and a few locks of hair below, seems to conflate more than one narrative moment. Of the man whom she had called to shave him during his sleep (16:19), there is no sign.

Before he is bound with bronze shackles, Samson has his eyes gouged out (16:21). Delilah, who has been acting as an ‘agent’ on behalf of the Philistines, used to ensnare the lovelorn Samson (16:4–5), is by this stage no longer active in the story. But in this painting Samson is gazing at her. Van Dyck’s focus is upon the despairing, loving looks between the two of them, as Delilah holds her hand outstretched to touch his face. In the words of the German theologian Dorothée Sölle, their ‘glances and gestures towards one another illustrate their tender attachment despite what has happened’ (1994: 145). Here the Philistines seem to be dragging Samson away from Delilah’s embrace. Van Dyck devotes significant attention to Delilah, as a foil to Samson: her pale skin, white blouse with one breast exposed, and the silky folds of her gown all catch the light.

Delilah becomes increasingly the focus of this episode in baroque art, and male artists devote an utterly unbiblical attention to her as a desirable woman. She here becomes the tragic lover, a role that overcomes her treachery. Van Dyck’s golden-tressed Delilah’s ‘desirability’ is not that of the femme fatale of popular readings (Bal 1987: 50), but is softened to that of the forlorn lover.

 

References

Gritsai, Natalia. 2013. Van Dyck (London: Sirrocco Publishing)

Moir, Alfred. 1994. Anthony van Dyck (New York: Harry N. Abrams)

Sölle, Dorothée. 1994. Great Women of the Bible (Macon: Mercer University Press)

See full exhibition for Judges 16:1–22

Judges 16:1–22

Revised Standard Version

16 Samson went to Gaza, and there he saw a harlot, and he went in to her. 2The Gazites were told, “Samson has come here,” and they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the gate of the city. They kept quiet all night, saying, “Let us wait till the light of the morning; then we will kill him.” 3But Samson lay till midnight, and at midnight he arose and took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two posts, and pulled them up, bar and all, and put them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that is before Hebron.

4 After this he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Deliʹlah. 5And the lords of the Philistines came to her and said to her, “Entice him, and see wherein his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to subdue him; and we will each give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.” 6And Deliʹlah said to Samson, “Please tell me wherein your great strength lies, and how you might be bound, that one could subdue you.” 7And Samson said to her, “If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings which have not been dried, then I shall become weak, and be like any other man.” 8Then the lords of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings which had not been dried, and she bound him with them. 9Now she had men lying in wait in an inner chamber. And she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he snapped the bowstrings, as a string of tow snaps when it touches the fire. So the secret of his strength was not known.

10 And Deliʹlah said to Samson, “Behold, you have mocked me, and told me lies; please tell me how you might be bound.” 11And he said to her, “If they bind me with new ropes that have not been used, then I shall become weak, and be like any other man.” 12So Deliʹlah took new ropes and bound him with them, and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And the men lying in wait were in an inner chamber. But he snapped the ropes off his arms like a thread.

13 And Deliʹlah said to Samson, “Until now you have mocked me, and told me lies; tell me how you might be bound.” And he said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web and make it tight with the pin, then I shall become weak, and be like any other man.” 14So while he slept, Deliʹlah took the seven locks of his head and wove them into the web. And she made them tight with the pin, and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he awoke from his sleep, and pulled away the pin, the loom, and the web.

15 And she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and you have not told me wherein your great strength lies.” 16And when she pressed him hard with her words day after day, and urged him, his soul was vexed to death. 17And he told her all his mind, and said to her, “A razor has never come upon my head; for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I be shaved, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man.”

18 When Deliʹlah saw that he had told her all his mind, she sent and called the lords of the Philistines, saying, “Come up this once, for he has told me all his mind.” Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her, and brought the money in their hands. 19She made him sleep upon her knees; and she called a man, and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then she began to torment him, and his strength left him. 20And she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And he awoke from his sleep, and said, “I will go out as at other times, and shake myself free.” And he did not know that the Lord had left him. 21And the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with bronze fetters; and he ground at the mill in the prison. 22But the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.

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