The Philistine Delilah cuts the hair of the Old Testament judge Samson thereby sapping him of his strength. The ass's jawbone, which Samson used to slay a thousand Philistines, uselessly lies nearby. In the courtly setting of Cranach's time, this subject had an allegorical meaning, warning men of the pitfalls of love, and the wiles of women.

The painting dates around 1529-30.

Forthcoming

Inscription: Signed (center right, on tree stump) with winged serpent

Barrie Simmons (until 1961; sale, Sotheby's, London, June 14, 1961, no. 107, for £11,000 to Markham, bought in; sold for £10,000 to Kleinberger for Payson); Joan Whitney Payson, New York and Manhasset (1961–d. 1975)

Huntington, N.Y. Heckscher Museum. "A Tribute to Whitney Griswold from the Collections of Yale Alumni of Long Island," September 6–29, 1963, unnumbered cat. (lent by Mr. and Mrs. Charles S. Payson).

Brussels. Palais des Beaux-Arts. "L'Univers de Lucas Cranach," October 20, 2010–January 23, 2011, no. 124.

Dieter Koepplin, and Tilman Falk. Lukas Cranach: Gemälde, Zeichnungen, Druckgraphik. Exh. cat., Kunstmuseum Basel. 2, Basel, 1976, p. 574, under no. 471, Koepplin lists the MMA and Dresden paintings as later variants of the Augsberg picture, attributing the Dresden work to Lucas Cranach the Younger and dating it about 1540.

Max J. Friedländer, and Jakob Rosenberg. The Paintings of Lucas Cranach. rev. ed. Ithaca, N.Y., 1978, p. 111, no. 213, ill., as possibly by Lucas Cranach the Younger; date it about 1540, noting that the Augsburg version of 1529 is obviously earlier; mention that the Dresden version, "probably a workshop production," is very similar.

Introduction by James Snyder in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: The Renaissance in the North. New York, 1987, pp. 15, 109, colorpl. 76, dates it about 1529.

Helga Hoffmann. Die deutschen Gemälde des XVI. Jahrhunderts. Weimar, [1990?], p. 60, under no. 19, believes it was painted about the same time as the Dresden picture (on long-term loan to the museum in Weimar), which she dates about 1537 and catalogues as a work by Lucas Cranach the Elder's workshop, tentatively giving it to Lucas Cranach the Younger or to Lucas the Younger with the Cranach workshop.

Aaron Santesso. "William Hogarth and the Tradition of Sexual Scissors." Studies in English Literature, 1500–1900 39 (Summer 1999), p. 519 n. 29, dates it 1540 and calls it "more erotically charged" than the earlier Augsburg version.

Dieter Koepplin in Werner Schade et al. Lucas Cranach: Glaube, Mythologie und Moderne. Exh. cat., Bucerius Kunst Forum, Hamburg. Ostfildern-Ruit, Germany, 2003, pp. 147, 162 n. 23, calls Friedländer and Rosenberg's [see Ref. 1978] dating of about 1540 too late.

Peter Klein. Letter to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. April 27, 2006, writes that dendrochronological analysis reveals that the earliest felling date for the tree from which this panel is made is 1524, and that with a minimum of one year for seasoning, the earliest execution date for the painting is 1525.

Guido Messling. L'Univers de Lucas Cranach: un peintre à l'époque de Dürer, de Titien et de Metsys. Exh. cat., Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels. Paris, 2010, p. 217, no. 124, ill. pp. 217 and 243 (color).

Another version of this subject by Cranach, in the Staatsgalerie, Augsburg, is dated 1529 (Friedländer and Rosenberg 1932, no. 175; F-R 1978, no. 212). Friedländer and Rosenberg call a third version, in the Gemäldegalerie, Dresden, probably a product of Cranach's workshop (F-R 1932, no. 288e; F-R 1978, no. 357E).