Walking through the illustrious halls of the Met, I struggled with choosing just one of the many magnificent pieces of art that reside in the distinguished museum. I finally landed on the captivating painting by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri nicknamed Il Guercino: Samson Captured by the Philistines. The piece was mounted in the chamber directly ahead, after walking up the primary staircase of the building. The painting immediately grabs your attention because of its elevated placement on the wall combined with its shear size measuring around 75.25 x 93.25 in. or 6.27 x 7.77 ft. The painting is composed by oil on canvas, and was completed in 1619. The gallery label in the museum provided important objective information about the piece including the fact that the piece was created through the commission of Cardinal Giacomo Serra, the papal legate to Ferrara (city in northern Italy). Over the course of his life Serra delegated several other commissions to Guercino and was known as a notable art collector in Rome. The subject of the picture is from the biblical book of Judges, where Samson, his hair having been short, is set upon by the Philistines who "bind him and blind him". The composition also entails Samson's lover, the deceitful Delilah. The main focus of the dramatic painting is the "vigorously modeled back" of Samson. The muscularly depicted back is most definitely the focal point of the painting, and with the conscious inclusion of this compositional element, it further supports its identity as being Baroque. .
When looking at this painting for the first time different elements catch the eyes of different people. Although naturally people hold different perspectives, the author's intention was to draw your eye to the center of the piece and to witness this monumental struggle that is taking place. Artists use elements of style and principles of composition all throughout their art in order to express certain mood, convey different ideas, and to emphasize particular subjects in their composition.
