Samson Carries Away the Gates of Gaza
Virgil Solis, 1565 · Judges 16:1
The passage
Then went Samson to Gaza, and saw there an harlot, and went in unto her.
Judges 16:1
About this woodcut
Samson strides out of the frame at an angle with the gates of Gaza across his shoulders — two enormous doors still hinged together, with their bar and posts. Behind him the town sits quietly, domes and towers, apparently unaware. He wears the short tunic and bare legs of a labourer rather than anything heroic.
The gates are drawn far too big to be carried and that is the joke Solis is making. They are wider than he is tall and the perspective is deliberately wrong. Nobody in the town has noticed yet, which makes the picture funnier than the text usually reads.
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