Samson and the Lion, from the Story of Samson

Samson and the Lion, from the Story of Samson

Anonymous, French, 16th century

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This hand-coloured print depicts an episode from the Old Testament story of Samson who had been given supernatural strength by God to combat his enemies and perform heroic feats. His weaknesses were unsuitable women and his hair, without which he was powerless. Here Samson is shown as a young man on his way to the city of Timnah in Canaan to meet a Philistine woman he had fallen in love with. On his way he was attacked by a lion. Without telling his parents, who accompanied him on his journey and are shown at the left, Samson tore the lion apart with his bare hands. The subject and the biblical passage from which the scene derives (Judges 14:6) is printed along the top of the print. The print was published by Denis Fontenay one of a number of publishers who worked on and around the rue de Mongtorgueil in Paris. The prints were made in large numbers and the process of colouring impressions with a stencil sped up the production. Today, however, few impressions are known. This is one of set of four prints representing the story of Samson purchased by the Museum in 2010.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Samson and the Lion, from the Story of SamsonSamson and the Lion, from the Story of SamsonSamson and the Lion, from the Story of SamsonSamson and the Lion, from the Story of SamsonSamson and the Lion, from the Story of Samson

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.