David Playing the Harp before Saul
1555
- Medium
- chiaroscuro woodcut
- Dimensions
- 33.4 × 47.9 cm
- Status
- In Museum Collection
- Collect24 Art ID
- C24-215811
The soothing effect of David’s music upon the melancholic King Saul, as relayed in the Old Testament and depicted here by Frans Floris, is the earliest visual evidence of the therapeutic use of music. Floris’s woodcut would have had contemporary relevance in its affirmation of Martin Luther’s belief that music-a divine power that creates order—had been made by God to combat the destructive power of evil.
Provenance
Severance Fund, 1997.189
Registry history
- 1555 — Recorded in the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art — prints
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