Incidents from the Story of David and Goliath

The present panel is a desco da parto, a birth tray on which delicacies were served, traditionally presented to the mother of a newborn child. During the fifteenth century these were enriched with decoration and assumed a predominantly symbolic function. The present panel, depicting the heroic deed of Jesse's youngest son, David, must have been made on the occasion of the birth of a boy to a noble, probably Florentine, family. To the left of the middle ground, David, who had refused the armour that King Saul had offered him, prepares with his right hand to hurl a stone from his sling at Goliath, while holding a shepherd's staff in the left hand. The artist emphasizes not only the extraordinary size of Goliath, standing on the right, but also his heavy armour (described in great detail in the Old Testament), presenting a deliberate contrast with the agile youth (I Samuel 7:4-7). Having beheaded the Philistine, David presents the head of Goliath to King Saul, who is standing on a chariot supported by elephants. In the background the Israelites defeat the army of the Philistines.

The image of the victorious David was very popular in Florence in the 1460s, and there are at least five pairs of cassone panels with the story of David from that period, including the exceptional panels by Pesellino now on loan to the National Gallery, London. As most of the images of David from the third quarter of the fifteenth century were commissioned by members of the inner circle of the Medici family, it is likely that the present desco was also painted for a member of the Florentine nobility. David was considered to be exemplum of good government and righteous defence (see A. Butterfield, The Sculptures of Andrea del Verrocchio, New Haven/London, 1997, pp. 29-31).