A crowned king stands by the city wall.
Bible in art · 2 Samuel
David Bringing the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem (Ms. 101, fol. 14, from the Illustrated Vita Christi, with devotional supplements)
Unknown English painter · about 1480–1490
Getty Center, Los Angeles
From an English picture book of the life of Christ with Old Testament scenes, written perhaps in Norfolk about 1480–1490. The painter used bright tempera and gold leaf on small parchment pages.
Below, a crowned king stands at a city gate as men play a harp and a lute before a small golden shrine. Above, a king on a throne raises his hand towards a crowd; one man holds a round loaf.
From the text
- Celebrating with harps and stringed instruments (2 Samuel 6:5)
- The ark brought up to Jerusalem (2 Samuel 6:15)
- David gives bread to all the people (2 Samuel 6:19)
The artist’s own
- The ark as a golden church-shaped shrine
- English clothes of the 1480s
Details
The king at the gate
Musicians
One man plays a harp, another a lute.
The ark
A small golden shrine is carried behind them.
Enthroned
Above, a king on a throne raises his hand.
Unknown illuminator, English (East Anglia). The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (Ms. 101 (2008.3), fol. 14) · Tempera colors and gold leaf, on parchment · Images provided here are believed to be in the public domain and are available under CC0 through Getty’s Open Content Program. (Getty record: "No Copyright", http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)