Jacob Matham was an accomplished artist in his own right. How do you know he didn’t make some changes when he made his engraving of Rubens’s ‘Samson and Delilah’?
Yes, Matham could have made minor changes to suit the medium he was working in, but for the following reasons we don’t believe he would have made major changes in composition such as filling in Samson’s missing toes or removing two soldiers from the doorway. a) Matham made his engraving only a few years after the ‘Samson and Delilah’ was completed. At that time Rubens was one of the most well-known and respected painters of his age, and it seems incredible that the engraver would have presumed to ‘improve upon’ his composition so dramatically. b) In Matham’s dedication to the painting’s owner, Nicolaas Rockox, he stresses the care and attention he has taken in producing his engraving. Why would he have committed this sentiment to writing if he had made two major changes to the original composition? c) Rubens had expressed his trust in Matham, and the engraver explicitly mentions “the Master Peter Paul Rubens” by name in the dedication. d) In an age before photography and mass reproduct
