Sansone e Dalila

This scene was painted around 1609 for Nicolaas Rockox, the mayor of Antwerp and a close friend of Rubens, to hang in his own home. It shows the moment Samson's strength is being stolen from him. He sleeps in Delilah's lap while a man leans in to cut his hair and soldiers wait in the doorway. The original vanished after Rockox died and only resurfaced in Paris in 1929. The version now in London was bought for a record price in 1980, and its authorship has been argued over ever since, with several specialists insisting it is a later copy rather than the lost Rubens. The debate is still open, which is why the details of who held the brush remain contested.