Viceregal School. 17th Century. “Samson and the Jawbone of an Ass” Oil on canvas 150 x 131,5 cm. A full-body depiction of Samson, the biblical figure and one of the last ancient Israelite judges, consecrated as a Nazirite. His story is told in the Book of Judges, chapters 13 to 16. He is portrayed just as described in the Bible: “of strong physique and extraordinary strength to fight his enemies” and to perform heroic feats beyond the capacity of ordinary mortals. He defeats a lion with his bare hands (shown on the right-hand side of the painting, recalling a similar work by Luca Giordano in the Prado Museum), slays an entire army using only a donkey’s jawbone, and brings down a Philistine temple with his bare strength. He has a piercing gaze that confronts the viewer. He is dressed in Roman fashion, with a breastplate and peplos, holding the jawbone of a donkey in his right hand. He stands in a Flemish-style setting, with landscape and architecture, and the lion’s head lies at his feet as a trophy of his strength. In the Bible, his feats are described with phrases such as “the spirit of Yahweh came upon him” (Judges 14:19) and “the spirit of Yahweh rushed upon him” (Judges 15:14), suggesting that his superhuman strength came only from carrying out acts in accordance with divine will. As we see in this painting, he holds the donkey’s jawbone, just as described in the Book of Judges: “Then Samson said: With the jawbone of a donkey, I have made heaps upon heaps; with the jawbone of a donkey I have slain a thousand men.” (Judges 15:16) — But what is it, exactly? The jawbone instrument is an idiophone percussion instrument made from the lower jaw of a donkey, mule, or horse with loose teeth. It is struck directly with the hand and/or the teeth are scraped using a deer antler, wooden stick, or even a metal rod, functioning both as a percussion idiophone and a friction idiophone. Its origin is presumed to be African. The instrument is placed close to Samson’s mouth, which clearly and once again symbolises in the Hebrew world “the Word of God.” Samson glorifies God and sings a song of victory through the Lord, recognising that it was with divine help that he defeated 1,000 Philistine soldiers. A Hebrew superhero of the Old Testament, gifted with superhuman strength through a secret: his flowing hair. If his hair were to be cut, he would lose all his strength. And that is exactly what his enemies, the Philistines, manage to do through the hands of Delilah. This canvas would have belonged to a series depicting characters from the Old Testament, designed as a kind of theatrical tableau, portraying lives with both virtues and failings, offering moral lessons to be learned from.