A man in green with an orange mantle hides his face.
Bible in art · 2 Samuel
Scenes from the Life of David (Ms. Ludwig I 6, recto, from the Morgan Picture Bible)
Unknown French painters · about 1250
Getty Center, Los Angeles
This leaf belongs to the Morgan Picture Bible, made in northern France about 1250, which told Old Testament stories almost entirely in pictures. Latin notes were added later, and still later Persian ones, when the book was in Persia.
In this lower band David leaves the city weeping, head covered, with his people. Beyond, a man raises a spear, another throws a stone, and on the hilltop a crowned figure meets a man driving laden donkeys.
From the text
- David goes up the Mount of Olives weeping, head covered, barefoot (2 Samuel 15:30)
- Shimei throws stones at him (2 Samuel 16:13)
- Ziba meets him with saddled donkeys (2 Samuel 16:1)
The artist’s own
- Several moments joined in one landscape
- Castles and arcades of 13th-century France
Details
David weeping
The people
A crowd walks out of the city gate.
Shimei
A man below the ridge holds a stone.
The donkeys
Two laden donkeys are driven up the hill.
Unknown illuminators, Northern France. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (Ms. Ludwig I 6 (83.MA.55), recto) · Tempera colors and gold leaf · 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/)