Samson and Delilah

Andrea Mantegna's Samson and Delilah, painted around 1495 and now in the National Gallery, London, treats the Old Testament story as a moralizing subject about the dangers of feminine seduction. The painting dates to Mantegna's late period at the Gonzaga court in Mantua, when he increasingly turned to mythological and Old Testament subjects rendered with the archaeological precision of a Renaissance humanist. The vine motif references the biblical narrative.

Mantegna renders the scene in near-monochrome grisaille that imitates classical relief sculpture, demonstrating his fascination with antiquity and his extraordinary ability to create illusionistic sculptural effects through painting.