A visual Journey into the Bible - Theartofpainting.be

The Deuteronomy Page: 40 / 334The Blinding of SamsonThe Blinding of SamsonRembrandt Harmensz van Rijn (1606-1668). Städelsches Kunstinstitut – Frankfurt amMain. 1636.Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn painted the ‘Blinding of Samson’ in 1636. That wasthe year of happiness for the artist as he would rarely see later. A year and a halfearlier, in 1634, he had married. True, his first son had died a few months after birth,but there was hope for other children. Rembrandt had started to deal in art, he had nomoney problems, and he had begun to gather a collection of all kinds of exoticobjects. He had moved to another house in Amsterdam in 1635, he adored his wifeand life seemed bright. Much of that joy can be seen in his painting of Samson, eventhough the scene is horrible and gruesome of course. For one thing, it is one of theextremely few pictures in which Rembrandt used green and blue colours, and hisyellow-golden hue on Samson is simply marvellous. It is also one of the paintings thatis most Caravaggist. The painting is powerful, and Rembrandt who was thirty yearsold then, was in full confidence of his skills which were already fully acknowledgedin Amsterdam.We see Samson lying down on the floor of a room but we only see a kind of cavernlighted from the outside. Samson lies in the bright light. He wears a yellow robe andthat robe glows golden in the incoming sun. He struggles, throws his feet in the air,but a man lies under him and pins him down, while heavily armoured Philistinesenchain his arms. A soldier horribly pushes his dagger into his eye and so blinds him,while another stands near and points his oriental spear to his hearth. Blood rushes outof Samson’s eyes and we can hear the screaming of the tortured and contorted judgeof Israel. Samson has no power anymore and Rembrandt also showed why, becauseon the right side of the cave Delilah flees to the light, trusting Samson’s hair beforeher and still holding the shears with which she cut off his nazirite power.Rembrandt painted the most dramatic, tragic moment of the bible story and he did thatwith an unequalled power. Few artists could have imagined Samson on the ground,with his head to the viewer. Rembrandt showed the act of torture very close to theviewer and this moment could not be painted in a more pointed, direct and ghastlymanner. Rembrandt had read the Bible story and retained the horror of the pains ofSamson and he had wanted to paint exactly that. He succeeded in creating one of themost immediate, powerful scenes of religious painting.The structure of the painting is in the way of a V. Look at the white glimmering of thelight on the right armoured soldiers. The white shining forms the right side of the V.To the left stands an oriental soldier with a lance and the outline of this figure is theleft side of the V. Inside the V is full bright light from the entering strong sunlight ofPalestine. We may even see here the blue water of a lake and here also Delilah flees,Copyright: René Dewil Date: October 2001