King David
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A full-length, seated portrait of King David, depicted with shoulder-length hair, long beard and moustache.
David is sitting on a golden throne, looking towards an inscribed stone slab on top of which his left hand rests. His right hand, holding a sceptre, is resting on a table covered with green cloth. He is wearing a white and blue-striped head scarf on top of which a golden crown with dark red cap rests.
He is wearing a red tunic with blue lining, and a golden orange cloak over his shoulders that is lined with fur. The cloak is fastened with a gold and gemstone brooch. On his feet, he is wearing green lace up sandals with a cloth lining.
The background is of a grey wall and the edge of a wall with a base of a cream-brown column behind his right.
Episodes from the life of King David, as told in the Old Testament, are familiar from centuries of Christian art: David the shepherd; David the harpist; David and Goliath; David and Bathsheba. His life was reckoned to prefigure the coming of Christ. This painting, by one of the leading Bolognese painters of the 17th century, shows him in contemplative majesty as the first king of a united Israel and author of the Psalms. The inscription on the stone tablet is a line from the Psalms, about Sion, City of God: ‘Glorious things are spoken of thee, O City of God.’
King David was commissioned by the Italian noblemen Gioseffo Locatelli of Cesena in for his palazzo, almost certainly as part of the remodelling of the house in 1651. It was originally to be paired with a companion painting depicting the 'Cumaean Sibyl' (now in the National Gallery, inventory number: NG6615), one of ancient Greek prophetesses who were supposed to have prophesied the coming of Christ but that work was sold to another buyer and so Guercino painted another: the ‘Samian Sibyl’ (also in the National Gallery, inventory numbe: NG6618) – as a pair to Locatelli’s King David.
Anna Szilágyi, 2023
Dimensions (mm) / weight (mg)
2235 x 1750
2580 x 2040 x 120 (frame size)
Inscriptions
GLORIOSA DICTA SVNT DE TE CIVITAS DEI. PSALM.s 86
Inscription
lower right on tablet held by David
Labels
EXHIBITION OF WORKS OF ART / LEEDS, 1868 / No. of Case [..] 3[?] / No. of Object 3
Label
bottom right
EXHIBITION OF WORKS OF ART/LEEDS, 1868 / No of case [..] 383 / No. of Object 3
Label
right side top
THE NATIONAL GALLERY / Number: L1105 / Artist: Guercino / Title: King David, 1651 / Owner: Private Collection
Label
top right
LOT 7 / Old Master & 19th Century / Paitings, Drawings & Watercolours/ (7862)/ Tuesday 06 July 2010 / Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, il / Guercino (Cento 1591-1666 Bologna) / King David / £5,000,000-8,000,000 / CHRISTIE'S
Label
top left
Provenance
- Commissioned by Gioseffo Locatelli of Cesena, 1651; by descent to the Marchesi Locatelli, Cesena; acquired by Gavin Hamilton on behalf of John Spencer, 1st Earl Spencer, 1768; by descent in the Spencer family at Spencer House and at Althorp House, Northamptonshire; purchased by the current owner for Spencer House, 2010.
Collection
- Waddesdon (Rothschild Family)
- On loan since 2023
Bibliography
- Michael Helston; Guercino in Britain: Paintings from British Collections; London; The National Gallery Company Limited; 1991; Cat. 29
Related files
- Cumaean Sybil, paired with King David, inventory number: NG6615, https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/guercino-the-cumaean-sibyl-with-a-putto
- Samian Sibyl with a Putto, designed as a companion to King David, inventory number: NG6618, https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/guercino-the-samian-sibyl-with-a-putto
Subject person
- King David, Named and pictured