A monumental masterpiece by Dutch Golden Age painter Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669) is about to undergo a major conservation effort. The painting, The Blinding of Samson (1636), is one of the masterpieces of the collection of Frankfurt’s Städel Museum.

“Our goal is to restore Rembrandt’s painting to its original intensity while ensuring the long-term preservation of the painting’s substance,” Stephan Knobloch, the Städel’s head of art technology and restoration, said in a statement. “Every measure is carefully tailored to the original techniques and materials in order to preserve the work as the artist intended.”

The Blinding of Samson measures over seven feet tall and roughly 10 feet wide. It depicts the Old Testament Biblical story of Samson, an Israelite gifted by God with superhuman strength, and his lover Delilah. After he told her his hair was the secret to his powers, Delilah cut it and delivered him to his enemies, the Philistines, who blinded him.

The museum first started thinking about working on The Blinding of Samson when the painting was included in the 2021–2022 exhibition “Rembrandt in Amsterdam: Creativity and Competition,” which also hosted a research colloquium, “Rembrandt in the Mirror of New Technological Investigations.”

Workshop view of Rembrandt van Rijn’s The Blinding of Samson (1636). Collection of the Städel Museum, Frankfurt.

The results were recently published in a special issue of ArtMatters: International Journal for Technical Art History. The article “On the Genesis of The Blinding of Samson: New Technical Findings in Context” discusses the findings of technical studies of the painting carried out in 2021, while the museum was closed during the pandemic. Imaging revealed Rembrandt’s previously unknown underdrawing, as well as new information about his layers of underpaintings done in different colors, showing that the artist changed the composition as he worked, even removing entire figures from the final version.

The upcoming conservation project will conduct intensive scientific research about the painting, which will address conditions caused both by natural aging and previous restoration work. The work is expected to take three to four years, and is one of 16 art conservation efforts being funded in 2025 by the Bank of America Art Conservation Project.

Micro X-ray fluorescence scan (µ-XRF scan) of Rembrandt van Rijn’s The Blinding of Samson (1636). Collection of the Städel Museum, Frankfurt.

“This funding is a vital contribution to the preservation of our cultural heritage and ensures that this extraordinary work will continue to be experienced in all its splendor in the future,” Städel director Philipp Demandt said in a statement, calling the painting “a masterpiece of international standing and one of the key works in our collection of 17th-century Dutch painting.”

To better understand Rembrandt’s original painting technique, the Städel plans to conduct a band of comprehensive technological investigations, including X-ray imaging, infrared reflectography, UV and raking light examinations, microscopy, and micro-X-ray fluorescence analysis.

Once that work is complete, conservators will remove any non-original paint added during past restorations, working to stabilize the painting and restore its appearance to match Rembrandt’s original artistic intention. The museum also plans to fashion a new historically accurate frame for the work.

Another major Rembrandt project, “Operation Night Watch,” has been ongoing at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam since 2019, conserving his 1642 masterpiece The Night Watch. The museum recently revealed that Rembrandt had copied the painting’s dog from a drawing by Adriaen van de Venne (1590–1662).