Description
Samson Rending the Lion is a woodcut by Albrecht Dürer dating to about 1497–98. The biblical hero’s encounter with the lion centers on a feat of extraordinary strength, making physical struggle the focus of the image. Samson’s action brings the story from the Book of Judges into an immediate confrontation between a human figure and a powerful animal.
The subject gives Dürer an opportunity to explore force through the relationship of bodies, gesture and line. The struggle carries the narrative: the viewer’s attention rests on the moment in which strength is tested and the lion is overcome. Samson Rending the Lion combines the clarity of a recognizable biblical episode with the intensity of a single decisive action. It belongs to the artist’s early mature work, when woodcut became an increasingly expressive vehicle for complex subjects.
Read our guide to giclée prints or browse the Dürer collection.
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