Explore the abstract of this artwork.
The Blinding of Samson is a 1636 painting by Rembrandt, now in the Städel (in Frankfurt). The painting is the first of its kind in pictorial tradition. No other artist at the time had painted this specific narrative moment. 
This painting was a gift to the House of Orange, Rembrandt's current patron of a few commissioned paintings, via its secretary Constantijn Huygens, as an excuse for the delay of the commissioned Passion paintings. Later it was acquired by Friedrich Karl von Schönborn and remained in the Palais Schönborn-Batthyány in Vienna until it was acquired by the Städel in 1905.
Frankfurt Constantijn Huygens Palais Schönborn-Batthyány Friedrich Karl von Schönborn Städel Rembrandt House of Orange Samson