Niccolo Boldrini and Titian
Samson and Delilah
1539-1544
Scroll
Physical Qualities
Woodcut, Sheet: 318 x 512 mm. (31.8 x 51.2 cm.)
Plate: 310 x 505 mm. (31 x 50.5 cm.)
Credit Line
Purchased in Honor of Barbara Knafel Scherlis
Object Number
1999.91
A symbol of treachery, Delilah used her voluptuous beauty to trick the Israelite warrior Samson into revealing the secret of his supreme strength: his uncut hair. While Samson slept, Delilah cut his hair so that his enemies, the Philistines, could capture him. This woodcut shows the moment of Delilah’s betrayal, as she holds large shears in one hand and Samson’s locks of hair in the other.
Hill-Stone Fine Prints & Drawings, New York
Women Behaving Badly: 400 Years of Power and Protest
David Rosand and Michelangelo Muraro, TITIAN AND THE VENETIAN WOODCUT, exh. cat. (Washington: International Exhibitions Foundation, 1976), pp. 185-187, no. 39
Inscribed: Verso: LR corner, illegible (or erased) writing in graphite.
Markings: none - orb (?)
