Antonio Bellucci

Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 4 December 2014, lot 194;

Where acquired by the present collector.

In this grand painting, Bellucci combines the dramatic narrative intensity of the late Baroque with the softer modeling and lighter palette of the eighteenth century. The tale of Samson and Delilah—in which she is enlisted to uncover the source of his strength (his unshorn hair)—would have conveyed a cautionary message to male beholders: beware the guile of beautiful women, whose machinations can fell even the strongest of men. Here Delilah, with one bare breast, reveals the fruit of her labors: she holds up the flowing locks she has just cut and proudly displays them to the Philistines who peer into the tent.