Samson and Delilah

When, after an evening of debauchery, the Israelite Samson fell asleep in the lap of his Philistine lover, Delilah, she summoned a servant to cut his hair, the source of Samson's superhuman strength. Jan Steen's use of dramatic gestures and expressions to tell the biblical story (Judges 18:19) was inspired by contemporary theater. The artist mocks Samson's overindulgence by contrasting it with the children teaching a dog to sit up, a popular metaphor for proper moral education. (http://collectionsonline.lacma.org)