The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 25, 2024

Samson

Samson

1630–31
(French, 1591–1632)
Framed: 157 x 125 x 7 cm (61 13/16 x 49 3/16 x 2 3/4 in.); Unframed: 135.6 x 102.8 cm (53 3/8 x 40 1/2 in.)

Did You Know?

The figure of Samson was likely a self-portrait of the artist.

Description

The Old Testament hero Samson rests his head on his hand in a pensive, even melancholic pose. Objects on the table recall two of his heroic deeds: he killed a lion with his bare hands, and liberated the Israelites by slaughtering a thousand Philistines with a donkey’s jawbone. Samson’s cuirass, or breastplate, is joined at the shoulder by a clasp in the form of two bees—the emblem of the Barberini family, who commissioned the painting around 1630. In 1627, the Barberini had engaged Valentin to paint another biblical hero, David victorious with the head of Goliath; the canvas depicting Samson was designed to be its pendant.
  • 1972-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
    Probably 1921-1947
    Edoardo Almagià [b. 1928], Rome, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    Probably 1921-1947
    Probably Roberto Almagià [1883-1947], by descent to his son, Edoardo Almagià 1
    c. 1899-1921
    Ing. Dr. Edoardo Almagià [b. 1841], Rome, by descent to his son Roberto Almagià, or grandson, Edoardo Almagià 1
    1899
    (Galleria Sangiorgi, Rome, Sciarra sale, March 28, 1899, fifth sale, no. 363, sold to Edoardo Almagià) 1
    1812-1899
    Colonna di Sciarra family, Rome 1
    1631-1812
    Cardinals Francesco [1597 –1679] and Antonio Barberini [1607-1671], by inheritance within the Barberini family, Rome 1
  • “A Grandi Costruttori…Impresa Almagià,” accessed May 29, 2014, http://sh1.webring.com/people/va/arcigno20000/almagia.htm.
    Edoardo Almagià, invoice, June 15, 1972, in CMA curatorial file.
    Cleveland Museum of Art. European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982.
    Rosenberg, Pierre. France in the Golden Age: Seventeenth-Century French Paintings in American Collections. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1982.
    Galleria Sangiorgi. Tableaux, objets d'art. Rome: 1899.
    Cleveland Museum of Art. European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982.
    Rosenberg, Pierre. France in the Golden Age: Seventeenth-Century French Paintings in American Collections. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1982.
    Filippo Mariotti, “Galleria Colonna di Sciarra,” La Legislazione delle Belle Arti (1892): 135.
    Cleveland Museum of Art. European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982.
    Rosenberg, Pierre. France in the Golden Age: Seventeenth-Century French Paintings in American Collections. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1982.
    Biblioteca apostolica vaticana, and Marilyn Aronberg Lavin. Seventeenth-Century Barberini Documents and Inventories of Art. New York: New York University Press, 1975.
    Keith Christiansen, email to Victoria Sears Goldman, Oct. 27, 2015, in CMA curatorial file.
    Ramdohr, Friedrich Wilhelm Basilius von. Ueber Mahlerei und Bildhauerarbeit in Rom: für Liebhaber des Schoenen in der Kunst. Leipzig, Germany: Bei Weibmanns Erben und Reich, 1787.
    Nibby, A. Itinéraire de Rome et de Ses Environs. Rome: [publisher not identified], 1842. Mentioned: Vol. I, p. 34 hdl.handle.net
    Pistolesi, Erasmo. Descrizione di Roma e suoi contorni: con nuovo metodo breve e facile per vedere la città in otto giorni : adorna di incisioni dè primi bulini. Roma: G. Gallarini, 1856. . Mentioned: P. 94 hdl.handle.net
    Mariotti, Filippo. La Legislazione delle Belle Arti. Roma: Unione Cooper. editr, 1892. Mentioned: P. 135, no. 46
    Orbaan, Johannes Albertus Franciscus. Documenti sul barocco in Roma. Rome, Italy:1920. Reproduced: p. 511
    Haskell, Francis. Patrons and Painters; A Study in the Relations between Italian Art and Society in the Age of the Baroque. London, United Kingdom: Chatto & Windus, 1963. Reproduced: p. 45
    Blunt, Anthony. The Paintings of Nicolas Poussin. Critical Catalogue. London: Phaidon, 1966. Mentioned: Vol. 1, P. 158, no. L4
    Vivian, Frances. "Poussin and Claude Seen from the Archivio Barberini." The Burlington Magazine 111, no. 801 (December 1969): 719-26. Mentioned: P. 721-722 www.jstor.org
    Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Catalogue of European Paintings in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Minneapolis, MN: Institute of Arts, 1971. Reproduced: p. 163
    Spear, Richard E. Renaissance and Baroque Paintings from the Sciarra and Fiano Collections. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1972. Mentioned: P. 32, no. 14
    Spear, Richard. "Unknown Pictures by the Caraggisti (with Notes on Caravaggio and His Followers)." Storia dell'Arte 14 (1972): 149-161. Mentioned: P. 151, P. 152, n. 72
    Borea, Evelina. "Considerazione sulla Mostra 'Caravaggio e i suoi Seguaci' a Cleveland." Bollettino d'Arte LVII (1972): 154-164. Mentioned: P. 162
    Pepper, Stephen D. "Caravaggio Rivedute e Coretto: La Mostra di Cleveland." Arte Illustrata V (1972): 170-178. Mentioned: P. 171; Reproduced: P. 175, fig. 8
    Nicolson, Benedict. "Caravaggesques at Cleveland." The Burlington Magazine 114, no. 827 (February 1972): 112-117. Mentioned: P. 114 www.jstor.org
    Held, Julius S. “Caravaggio and His Followers.” Art in America 60 (March 1972): 40–47. Mentioned: P. 44
    Brejon de Lavergnée, Arnauld, and Jean Pierre Cuzin. I Caravaggeschi Francesi. Roma: De Luca, 1973. Mentioned: P. 88, 123, 126, 168
    Enggass, Robert. "Review of Spear's Caravaggio and His Followers." The Art Bulletin 55, no. 3 (September 1973): 460-462. Mentioned: P. 462 www.jstor.org
    Thuillier, Jacques. L'Opera Completa di Poussin. Milano: Rizzoli, 1974. Mentioned and Reproduced: P. 119, no. R21
    Lavin, Marilyn Aronberg. Seventeenth-Century Barberini Documents and Inventories of Art. New York. NY: New York University Press, 1975. Mentioned: p. 43, p. 98, p. 114, p. 242, p. 530, p. 695
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 171 archive.org
    Nicolson, Benedict. The International Caravaggesque Movement: Lists of Pictures by Caravaggio and His Followers Throughout Europe from 1590 to 1650. Oxford, United Kingdom: Phaidon, 1979. Reproduced: p. 104
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Paintings, Part 3: European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982. Mentioned: p. 147-150; Reproduced: p. 148
    Wine, Humphrey. The Seventeenth Century French Paintings. London, United Kingdom: National Gallery: Distributed by Yale University Press, 2001. Reproduced: p. 395, fig. 5
    Rosenberg, Pierre, and Jean-Pierre Caillet. La peinture française. Paris, France: Mengès, 2001. Reproduced: p. 245
    Iacono, Margaret. Masterpieces of European Painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art. New York, NY: The Frick Collection, 2006. Mentioned: p. 40-43, Reproduced: no. 7
    Fried, Michael. The Moment of Caravaggio. Princeton, NJ.: Princeton University Press, 2010. Reproduced: p. 175
    Franklin, David, and Sebastian Schütze. Caravaggio & His Followers in Rome. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2011. Reproduced: p. 120, fig. 46
    Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 182
    Theiler, Esther. "Valentin de Boulogne's Portraits of Raffaello Menicucci -- The Buffoon Count of Monte San Savino." Studiolo: Revue d'histoire de l'art de l'Académie de France à Rome. 13 (2016): 130-145. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 136, fig. 5
    Sman, Gert Jan van der. Carravaggio and the Painters of the North. [Madrid]: Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, 2016. Reproduced: p. 44, fig. 24
    Lemoine, Annick, Keith Christiansen, Patrizia Cavazzini, Jean-Pierre Cuzin, and Gianni Papi. Valentin De Boulogne: Beyond Caravaggio. New York, NY: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New Haven, CT : Distributed by Yale University Press, 2016. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 220-223; cover
    Cavazzini, P. "La Cattive Compagnie di Valentin 'L'Amador'." Il giornale dell'arte 34, no.368 (October 2016): Vernissage suppl. 16-17. Reproduced: Vernissage suppl. p. 16
    Spear, Richard E. "An Invisible Web: Art Historians Behind the Collecting of Italian Baroque Art." In Buying Baroque: Italian Seventeenth-Century Paintings Come to America. Edited by Edgar Peters Bowron, 54-65. University Park, Pennsylvania: The Frick Collection, The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2017. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 54-55
    Massari, Anna Maria Ambrosini, ed. Il Mestiere del Conoscitore, Roberto Longhi. Bologna: Fondazione Federico Zeri, Università di Bologna, 2017. Mentioned: p. 353; Reproduced: p. 361; cat. 8
    Cicconi, Maurizia, Flaminia Gennari Santori, and Sebastian Schütze. L'immagine sovrana: Urbano VIII e i Barberini. Roma : Officina libraria, 2023. Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 230-231, cat 25
  • La mirabil congiuntura': Urbano VIII, i Barberini, le arti, la cultura. Palazzo Barberini, Rome, Italy (organizer) (March 15-July 30, 2023).
    Valentin de Boulogne: Beyond Caravaggio. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (October 4, 2016-January 22, 2017); Musée du Louvre, Paris, France (February 22-May 22, 2017).
    Masterpieces of European Painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage, Beachwood, OH (March 29-July 8, 2007).
    Masterpieces of European Painting from The Cleveland Museum of Art. Frick Collection, New York, NY (organizer) (November 8, 2006-January 28, 2007).
    Year in Review: 1972. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 27-March 18, 1973).
    Masterpieces of European Painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage, Beachwood, OH (March 29, 2007 - July 8, 2007)
  • {{cite web|title=Samson|url=false|author=Valentin de Boulogne|year=1630–31|access-date=25 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1972.50