Full title | The Triumph of David |
---|---|
Artist | Francesco Pesellino |
Artist dates | 1422 - 1457 |
Series | Story of David Panels from a Pair of Cassoni (?) |
Date made | about 1445-55 |
Medium and support | Tempera on wood |
Dimensions | 43.3 x 177 cm |
Acquisition credit | Bought with the assistance of the Art Fund and a number of gifts in wills, 2000 |
Inventory number | NG6580 |
Location | Room 53 |
Art route(s) | A |
Collection | Main Collection |
A fantastic procession winds its way through a Tuscan landscape dotted with hills and walled towns. Extravagantly dressed nobles ride prancing horses, while their hounds, a hunting cheetah and even a bear trot along beside them.
Although it looks like medieval Italy, this actually shows a biblical event: David’s triumphant return to Jerusalem after killing the giant Goliath, an enemy of Israel. He stands proudly on a horse-drawn cart, holding Goliath’s head by the hair.
This long and detailed painting was probably once set into the panelling of a room, maybe above a chest or a seat. At the right a young man and a woman greet each other outside the walls of a city – this might be a betrothal, and the panel was possibly made to celebrate a marriage.
A fantastic procession winds its way through a Tuscan landscape dotted with hills and walled towns. Like its pair, The Story of David and Goliath, the whole scene is crammed with activity. Trumpeters play and extravagantly dressed nobles ride prancing horses, while their hounds, a cheetah and a bear trot along beside them (during the Renaissance cheetahs were kept for hunting).
This pair of long paintings probably decorated a bed chamber in fifteenth-century Florence. Painted by Francesco Pesellino, their dimensions suggest that these panels were spalliere, pictures set into the panelling of a domestic interior, usually at shoulder height, above chests or seating. They were perhaps made for the Medici to commemorate a wedding. The family are known to have had paintings by Pesellino.
Images of parades and processions were very well suited to this type of panel. Although it looks like fifteenth-century Italy, the story comes from the Old Testament. This is David’s return to Jerusalem after killing the Philistine giant Goliath, an enemy of Israel. He stands proudly, holding Goliath’s head by the hair, the body slung on the cart behind him. The bloody stump of the giant’s neck is visible between his feet. Saul, King of Israel, leads the procession towards the walled city of Jerusalem. He wears armour and a crowned helmet decorated with a dragon.
Like his contemporary Paolo Uccello, Pesellino was intensely interested in showing animals, especially horses, in movement. The very emphatically male horses here are shown at a variety of angles – from the side, from the front, from behind – and in various poses. The way the muscles and heads are painted suggests he was working from drawings from life, like Pisanello, although occasionally the arrangement of legs is inaccurate and he may well also have been looking at equestrian sculptures too.
At the far right outside the walls a betrothal is taking place: a young man in contemporary Florentine costume is being presented to a young woman and her companions. This could be an allusion to David and Michal, Saul’s daughter, who fell in love with David and married him or, more probably, the couple for whom the paintings were intended.
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Story of David Panels from a Pair of Cassoni (?)
There’s so much going on in these pictures that it’s hard to make out the story. Battles and parades, knights and nobles, horses, hounds, lions, bears and giants are crammed in a flowery Tuscan landscape. Although it looks like a fairy tale set in medieval Italy, the story comes from the Bible and tells how a brave shepherd boy, David, married a princess after defeating a giant, Goliath.
The long shape of each painting is due to their original function. They would probably have been set into the panelling of a private room, possibly over a chest. We don't know exactly who they were made for, but emblems associated with the Medici, the ruling family of Florence in the fifteenth century, are shown on some of the clothing. They might have been made for a Medici marriage.
There’s so much going on in these unusually shaped panels that it’s hard to make out the story. Battles and parades, knights and nobles, horses, hounds, lions, bears and giants are crammed in a flowery Tuscan landscape, with roads and rivers winding through green hills and between medieval walled cities.
Although it looks like a fairy tale set in fifteenth-century Italy, the story comes from the Bible, and tells how a brave shepherd boy, David, married a princess after defeating the giant Goliath. This is what is known as cyclical narrative, where events which took place at different times are shown in a single setting. The narrative starts on the left of The Story of David and Goliath, with David guarding his flocks, and continues – more or less – from left to right, to his battle with Goliath. The Triumph of David shows the triumphal procession bringing the giant’s head to Jerusalem. On the far right there seems to be a betrothal scene: a group of richly dressed courtiers are gathered around a man and a woman who are being formally presented to each other. This could be David and Michal, daughter of the King of Israel whom David married, or the couple for whom the paintings were intended – or perhaps a conflation of both.
These paintings would doubtless have decorated a private room in fifteenth-century Florence and give us an idea just how sumptuous interiors in Renaissance Italy could be. They were probably spalliere, paintings set into the panelling, usually at shoulder height, above chests or seating. The detail, like the flowers in the grass at the front, was clearly meant to be examined close up. Although some of the materials have now darkened – the silver of the knights‘ armour, the green of the plants and the blue of the sky – and in places the surface of the paint is rather worn and some detail has been lost, they would originally have been brilliantly coloured and sparkling with gold and silver. The animals, in particular the bear, cheetah and lions, were beautifully painted and very naturalistic, and the punched and burnished gold must have shone in the candle light.
Their iconography suggests they were made to commemorate a marriage, probably for one of the Medici, whose emblems appear on some of the knight’s clothing. We know that Pesellino painted spalliere and cassoni for the family, and they were especially interested in the story of David: they commissioned several works showing the victorious David, including a bronze statue by Donatello that’s still in the Palazzo Medici. The atmosphere of these paintings is also very similar to that of Benozzo Gozzoli’s frescoes in the Medici chapel.
Two of Cosimo de’ Medici’s sons, Piero and Giovanni, married in 1448 and 1453 respectively; his nephew Pierfranceso di Medici married in 1456. If the paintings were made for a Medici wedding, these three are all possible options. Whoever they were meant for, the joyful, romantic subject matter would have been especially suitable for a young couple’s bedroom.


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