Italian school; 17th century. "Delilah cutting Samson's hair". Oil on canvas. Re-coloured. It presents repainting and 17th century Dutch style frame. Measurements: 68 x 75 cm; 94 x 101 cm (frame). This oil on canvas painting represents the moment when Delilah is cutting Samson's hair, the basis of his strength. The latter, bribed by the Philistines, had succeeded in getting Samson, madly in love, to confess his secret to her; so, one night, accompanied by a servant girl, she had him scalped, leaving him stripped of his strength and at the mercy of his enemies. Samson is shown asleep, lying on Delilah's lap while Delilah, seated, bends down slightly to continue trimming Samson's hair. The scene is completed by a servant girl who is standing and holding a candle to facilitate Delilah's task. The highly theatrical composition, full of narrative details in which the main scene is highlighted by a blue curtain, presents us with a biblical story of great drama. The characters are rendered with greater contrast, typically Baroque, with a certain chiaroscuro that, without being strictly Tenebrist, reveals a knowledge of the work of Caravaggio and his followers. Formally, this work is dominated by the influence of the Roman-Bolognese classicism of the Carracci and their followers, one of the two great currents of the Italian Baroque, together with Caravaggio's naturalism. Thus, the figures are monumental, with idealised faces and serene, balanced gestures, in an idealised representation based on classical canons. The rhetoric of the gestures, theatrical and eloquent, clearly baroque, is also typical of 17th-century Italian classicism. The importance of the chromatic aspect should also be noted, which is very well thought out, toned and balanced, centred on basic shades of red, ochre and blue. Also typical of this school of Baroque classicism is the way the scene is composed, with a circular rhythm and closed on one side while opening up to the landscape on the other. In terms of composition, it is worth noting how all the figures are placed practically on the same plane, separated from the viewer by a certain amount of space, equidistant from the background. Dimensions 68 x 75 cm; 94 x 101 cm (frame).