Samson Slaying the Philistines

These two works (AMAM 1949.81 & 82) are part of a series of twelve panels that were kept together until just after 1946, when they were sold from the collection of the Earl of Kinnaird at Rossie Priory in Scotland. Four are in the Rijksmuseum (Samson conquering the lion, Samson destroying the temple, Hercules and Nessus, and Neptune), four are in the Yale University Art Gallery (Hercules carrying the column of heaven, Hercules and Antaeus, Hercules and the Hydra, and Saturn), and two were sold at auction at Sotheby's London in 2008 (Samson grasping the gates of Gaza and Pluto).

The eminent art historian Erwin Panofsky studied the series and established a parallel between the classical hero Hercules and the Old Testament figure Samson; according to him, the AMAM Samson panel is paired with the Hercules and Antaeus example at Yale. Panofsky also suggested that the Herculean scenes can be read in terms of the Four Elements, wherein the Oberlin and Yale panels represent Earth (as Hercules defeats Antaeus by lifting him from the ground). Wolfgang Stechow suggested the four gods (Neptune, Pluto, Saturn, and Jupiter) can also be read this way, in which Oberlin's Jupiter (as supreme god and often depicted, as here, with an eagle) represents Air. Other scholars have noted that while in the sixteenth century, artists often linked ancient gods with Hercules, and Hercules with Samson, this is the only known instance in which all three are linked together.

The original function of the panels remains unclear, although given their narrow shape it has been suggested that they may have served as door surrounds or possibly as panels in a scholar's study. Van Heemskerck spent 1532-36 in Rome, and as Stechow noted, "the memory of Roman sarcophagi is very vivid" in these works- and the use of the all-brown technique (brunaille) specifically helps to create the illusion that the works are sculptural. Because of this, Stechow had dated them to around 1535. However, a recent study of the wood of the twelve panels confirms that of the four different trees used, the latest was felled in 1545 at the earliest and was ready for use in 1547.