Samson holding the jaw bone of an ass over his head and standing next to the Philistines he has just killed, more dead bodies in the background, a tapered composition with rounded top, after Reni

Samson holding the jaw bone of an ass over his head and standing next to the Philistines he has just killed, more dead bodies in the background, a tapered composition with rounded top, after Reni by Flaminio Torre (Torri). The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1951

Created in 1660 during the Baroque period, this work belongs firmly within the portrait tradition. Flaminio Torre worked at a moment when the rivalry between Catholic Baroque drama and Protestant restraint reshaped what a painting could mean. Every gesture, fabric, and gleam of light was decoded by contemporary viewers like a private language.

Executed in Etching, measuring Sheet (Trimmed): 15 5/16 × 12 3/16 in. (38.9 × 31 cm), the surface rewards close looking. Flaminio Torre builds the composition through layered glazes and a tightly controlled palette, letting cool shadows recede so that the warm, lit passages step forward. The brushwork shifts from the precise to the almost dissolved — a hallmark of mature Baroque practice.

“A silence so complete it becomes its own witness.”