Blessed with superhuman strength, the biblical hero Samson kills a lion with his bare hands and soon discovers that bees have produced honey in the animal’s carcass. Guercino portrayed Samson presenting his parents with fragments of the honeycomb, rendered in exquisite detail. Depictions of this episode are rare, but Guercino painted it twice: first around 1627, in his shadowy early style (Chrysler Museum of Art,  Norfolk, Virginia), and again thirty years later, in dazzling, costly colors that reflect recent stylistic developments in Bologna and Rome. A surviving account book, which records the commission for this picture, tracks Guercino’s growing clientele and financial success.