David and the Three Warriors

From the Late Middle Ages onwards the story of David and the three warriors was closely associated with the Queen of Sheba bringing Solomon gifts (1 Kings 10; 2 Chronicles 9) and the wise men from the East coming to see the new-born king (Matthew 2:1–12). The focus of all three stories is the act of proskynesis (bowing or prostrating oneself before a person) and the adoration it expresses. As the Magi brought precious gifts to the new-born Christ, so the three warriors were bringing David water from the well of Bethlehem at the risk of their lives.

This fragment of a shutter for a winged altarpiece in the Art Institute of Chicago is one of the finest examples of the Antwerp Mannerist style. In keeping with the increase in private devotion in the early sixteenth century, the topic offers the viewer close-up, intimate involvement.

On the left an aged David sits under a canopy of splendid brocade and velvet and receives richly-armoured knights in his throne room. This is far from being an abandoned place, let alone a cave. Rather, we see David in the centre of a large fortified city—we glimpse its palaces and towers in the background.

The painting is very rich in details—architectural features, simulated metalwork, putti, chained monkeys, exquisite clothes, costly garments and weapons. These are also characteristic of the Mannerist style. The warrior in the foreground presents the container of water to David, who raises his hand, while a turbaned soldier in the background gestures towards them. Their hands form a triangular frame around the vessel, directing our attention to it. It contains the precious water the three warriors took from the well of Bethlehem; the water for which David was longing.

The painting was developed to give flamboyant expression to the new devotional iconography of the period. As the three warriors, the Queen of Sheba and the Magi worshipped David, Solomon, and Christ, respectively—in each case bringing them gifts—so the patron worships God by commissioning the altarpiece.

References

Sander, Jochen and Peter van den Brink. 2001. Gold, Weihrauch und Myrrhe. Die ‘von Grootesche Anbetung der Heiligen Drei Könige’—ein wiederentdecktes Meisterwerk der Renaissance in Antwerpen (Frankfurt: Städelsches Kunstinstitut)

Wolff, Martha. 2008. ‘Antwerp Mannerist (Master of the Antwerp Adoration Group)’, in Northern European and Spanish Paintings before 1600 in the Art Institute of Chicago. A Catalogue of the Collection, ed. by Martha Wolff et al (New Haven: Yale University Press), pp. 129–135

Claude Lorrain depicts the scene of David and his warriors in the context of an impressive landscape. As we know from an inscription on a later drawing of the same subject, he painted this canvas in 1659 for Prince Agostino Chigi, who was the nephew of Pope Alexander VII. Its original location was probably the Castel Sant’Angelo or the palace at the Piazza dei Santi Apostoli in Rome.

It can be assumed that its subject had not been chosen at random. Within a political context in which corruption was not uncommon, it may have been intended to express the patron’s commitment to an ideal of self-restraint and exemplary moral behaviour. Claude painted a moment in the story not focussing on the selfless action of his warriors (which is not depicted), nor on their admiration of David (they do not kneel before him), but on David’s rejection of the water: David lifts his hands in a repelling gesture.

But perhaps the most important feature of this huge painting is not so much the narrative of David and his warriors as the landscape itself. Human gesture, body language, and physiognomic expression are upstaged by the majesty of rocks and trees, and Bethlehem’s wonderful array of pyramids and towers. The landscape becomes a protagonist of this picture, adding its own heroism to the story.

Claude—though a French painter—spent most of his career in Italy. Here, he sets his biblical narrative in hills reminiscent of his adoptive country. His representation of Bethlehem in the middle distance includes free variations of the Roman Torre delle Milizie (upper part) and the Torre dei Conti (lower part). He also vividly includes other details described in the biblical text such as the cave of Adullam—with David and his entourage standing before it—and the valley of Rephaim in the far distance.

By showing a fertile western-European landscape Claude is however underlining the symbolic meaning of the story. There is no aridity here. David’s desire to drink water from the well at the gate of Bethlehem was prompted by nostalgia for the fine-tasting water of Bethlehem’s well and not by real thirst.

Claude’s predilection for the bucolic has its own nostalgia which serves his interpretation of the story well. The experience of David, far away from his hometown and overwhelmed by homesickness, invites the viewer’s sympathy.

References

Langdon, Helen. 1989. Claude Lorrain (Oxford: Phaidon Press), pp. 101–18

Röthlisberger, Marcel. 1979. Claude Lorrain: The Paintings, Volume 1: Critical Catalogue (New York: Hacker Art Books), pp. 343–45

Sonnabend, Martin. 2011. ‘Claude Lorrain. Die verzauberte Landschaft’, in Claude Lorrain—die verzauberte Landschaft: Ausstellungskatalog, ed. by Martin Sonnabend, Christian Rümelin, and Jon Whiteley (Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz), pp. 11–21

This sixteenth-century engraving by the brothers Johann Theodor and Johann Israel de Bry is part of a book about King David containing thirty-nine prints and associated texts on the vices and virtues of the Hebrew king. The engraving first appeared in 1597 in Frankfurt, but it was reprinted several times in new (translated) editions of the same book, and in illustrated Bibles.

David is standing in the left foreground dressed as a warrior, like the line of men holding long spears that stretches away from him. The three warriors approach from the right, bringing David two large jars filled with water. In the right background the city of Bethlehem is clearly visible, with grand towers and noble houses. Just in front of the city gate, the three warriors are shown at an earlier moment in the narrative. They are drawing water from the well, not far away from the Philistine garrison whose men are also armed with large spears.

The scene in the foreground shows precisely the moment at which David pours out the water, saying that he will not drink it because the three heroes risked their lives to get it:

Far be it for me, Lord, that I do this. Is it not the blood of the men who went at the risk of their lives? (2 Samuel 23:17, own translation)

The title of the engraving (not visible here but see Arias Montano 1597: 59, link below) is temperantia regia: ‘royal temperance’. This tells us that the episode is here being interpreted as a demonstration of abstinence and self-control. A short poem containing two elegiac distiches accompanied the engraving together with some further explanation of the biblical text. It encouraged the reader to act like David. David’s longing for the water of his native town Bethlehem was understandable and human. He did what was right, however, in not drinking it.

By resisting the temptation to drink the precious gift, David overcomes his weakness and faults. Realizing the frivolity of his wish, he offers us an example—repenting and refusing to consume what previously he had longed for.

References

Arias Montano, Benito. 1597. David, virtvtis exercitatissimae probatum Deo spectaculum: ex Dauidis pastoris, militis, ducis, exsulis ac prophetae exemplis (Frankfurt) available at https://archive.org/details/davidvirtvtisexe00aria/page/58

Kipfer, Sara. 2015. Der bedrohte David. Eine exegetische und rezeptionsgeschichtliche Studie zu 1Sam 16–1Kön 2 (Berlin: De Gruyter), pp. 351–410