# Samson and Delilah [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [CRANACH, Lucas the Elder]() - Date: 1501-1550 - Technique: Oil on beech panel, 57 x 37 cm ## Commentary The story of Samson and Delilah is one of the biblical and classical subjects that were seen to exemplify the power or wiles of women and as such were popular in medieval and Renaissance art and literature. The theme presented an admonitory and often humorous inversion of the male dominated sexual hierarchy. Lucas Cranach the Elder was the first northern artist to treat many of these subjects, found previously only in the decorative and graphic arts, in the elevated medium of panel painting. The basic compositional model for the present painting was <a onclick="return OpenOther\('/html/l/leyden/2/samson.html'\)" href="/html/l/leyden/2/samson.html">Lucas van Leyden's woodcut</a> of about 1514. <p> <table align=left cellpadding=5 border=1 width=320 bgcolor="\#99cccc"> <tr valign=middle><td><img src="/support/gif/listen.gif" border=0 valign=middle> Suggested listening \(streaming mp3, 10 minutes\):<br><a href="\#" onClick="w=window.open \('/music1/19\_cent/saint-saens\_delila.html', 'newWin', 'scrollbars=yes,status=no,dependent=yes,screenX=0,screenY=0,width=350,height=350'\);w.opener=this;w.focus\(\);return true"><b>Camille Saint-Saens: Samson et Delila, Delila's aria</b></a> </td></tr></table> ## Related artworks - [A Faun and his Family with a Slain Lion \(detail\)]() - [A Faun and his Family with a Slain Lion]() - [A Prince of Saxony]() - [A Princess of Saxony]() - [Adam and Eve \(detail\)]() - [Adam and Eve]() - [Adam and Eve]() - [Adam and Eve]() - [Adam and Eve]() - [Adam and Eve]() - [Adam and Eve]() - [Adam and Eve]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()