Samson setting on fire the wheat of the Philistines (Samson met le feu dans les blés des Philistins)
Etching with illustration of a scene of the life of Samson from the passage from the Book of Judges, in which he caught 300 foxes and attached torches to their tails, set them on fire, and released the torches to the standing grain of the Philistines, burning up their wheat crops, vineyards and groves. In the print, Samson sits next to a tree on the lower left side of its oval shape, releasing a fox, carrying a torch on fire on his tail. To the right of the print, several foxes with torches run towards a field with wheat crops, clouds of fume rising above it. Above him, a distant city is illustrated, its buildings surrounded by trees and fields. This etching forms part of the first set of prints with scenes from the Old Testament created by Étienne Delaune in 1561.
Artwork Details
- Title: Samson setting on fire the wheat of the Philistines (Samson met le feu dans les blés des Philistins)
- Artist: Etienne Delaune (French, Orléans 1518/19–1583 Strasbourg)
- Date: 1561
- Medium: Etching
- Dimensions: Sheet (trimmed): 2 5/8 × 3 7/16 in. (6.6 × 8.8 cm)
- Classifications: Prints, Ornament & Architecture
- Credit Line: Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1947
- Object Number: 47.139.13
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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