Samson (or Hercules?)
Jacques Bellange
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
Few paintings survive by Jacques Bellange, a favored artist of the ducal court of Lorraine in what is today northeastern France. His reputation as one of the greatest late Mannerist artists is due primarily to his extant prints and drawings, which are distinguished by their idiosyncratic style combining courtly elegance and psychological expressiveness. This recently discovered sheet is entirely characteristic of Bellange's style as a draftsman. Flamboyant curves and curlicues are produced in a rapid ink line, delineating the figure's beard, the animal skins draped from his shoulder, and his elaborate sandals. Passages of parallel hatching, reinforced by blocky areas of wash, model his powerful, twisting form in a pose suggestive of both force and grace. Samson and Hercules, who happen to share the attributes of lion skin and club, have both been proposed as the subject of this sheet. In the biblical account, the club Samson brandishes is the jawbone of an ass, the weapon used to defeat the Philistines. He is sometimes depicted after the battle holding the jawbone aloft, whence water would miraculously gush forth to quench his thirst. Perrin Stein, May 2014
Drawings and Prints
An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.