Samson

Everyone knows Samson for the slaughter of the Philistines with the jawbone of an ass. This picture catches the quieter moment just after. His work done, Samson is desperately thirsty, and by the biblical account God makes water spring from a hollow in the rock so he can drink. Langetti gives the whole scene to one straining body, laid out on a long diagonal, with a hard light picking out the muscles of the arm and back while the ground falls away into shadow. He still grips the jawbone he fought with, now used to catch the water. Venetian viewers read that flowing water as more than relief from thirst. They recognised the echo of the blood and water that flow from Christ's wound on the cross, so a brute strongman doubles as a figure of salvation. The painting is dated to about 1665.