A visual Journey into the Bible - Theartofpainting.be

The Deuteronomy Page: 42 / 334The Revenge of SamsonThe Revenge of SamsonJohann Georg Platzer (1704-1761). Österreichische Galerie im Belvedere. Vienna. Ca.1740.Samson had to turn the mill in the prison. But slowly his hair began to grow again.The Philistines assembled for a great sacrifice to Dagon their God and for a feast ontheir victory over Samson. They even summoned Samson out of prison to performfeats for them at the celebration. During the feast Samson came to stand between thepillars supporting the building. The building was crowded with Philistines. Samsoncalled out to Yahweh. He took hold one the two central pillars, braced himself withone arm around the right pillar, and with the other arm around the left pillar. He thenheaved with all his might, shouting he wanted to die with the Philistines. The pillarsmoved and the whole building collapsed on the Philistine chieftains and on the threethousand men and women who had participated at the feast. All were killed.Johann Georg Platzer took up the theme of Samson’s revenge in the eighteenthcentury. He was born in the Southern Tyrol region and he learned to paint with hisstepfather Joseph Anton Kessler at Innsbruck, then with his uncle Christoph Platzer atPassau. He came to Vienna, the capital of Austria, around 1721 and he paintedpictures there for the rich middle class families of the town. He met the Austrianpainter Franz Christoph Janneck there and became friends with him. The work of boththese painters has similarities, but Platzer was more flamboyant even in his Baroquerepresentations of scenes with very many figures than Janneck. Platzer’s fame forgallant mythological, historical and genre pieces grew so much that he delivered fromout of Vienna works for the rich and noble from London to Moscow and SaintPetersburg. In a later age, after a stroke, Platzer retired to his home village again, toSankt Michael im Eppan, where he changed his style to rougher brushstrokes.Platzer’s ‘Samson’s Revenge’ is a spectacular picture for which the artist worked inoil on a copper plate. His painting is one of the largest coppers ever made; itsdimensions are 76 by 95 cm. Copper is a superb medium for paint. It allows splendiddetail and brilliant colours. German copper painters, starting with Adam Elsheimer,offered a wealth of very small details and of very many figures, and Platzer’s pictureis no exception to the tradition.We see an incredible chaos of figures and objects in Johann Georg Platzer’s painting.The falling balcony that seems to hang, suspended in the air, grips the viewer’sattention immediately. Various figures also fall in all directions. Under the balconywe discover a bald Samson, embracing two columns more than tearing at them. Thecolumns come away and all lines around Samson thus are oblique, everything isfalling around him. The columns do not seem heavy and strong. Samson pushes themout and they give in easily so that they look like carton replicas in a cheap movie. Thelines of the columns are in all directions as they come apart at Samson’s hands.Platzer used skilfully a design of lines in all directions; all lines being skewed. TheCopyright: René Dewil Date: October 2001