Saul and David
Medium
Pen and brown ink, with red chalk, on cream laid paper
Dimensions
26.1 × 38.7 cm (10 5/16 × 15 1/4 in.)
Classification
pen and ink drawings
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
95660
Art Historical Context
Baccio Bandinelli’s *Saul and David* a dramatic biblical encounter between the troubled King Saul and the young harpist David, whose music was said to soothe the monarch’s torment. As a leading Florentine sculptor and draftsman of the sixteenth century, Bandinelli frequently explored such Old Testament subjects in his drawings, using them to work out the powerful, expressive figures that would later appear in marble or bronze. Executed in pen and brown ink with delicate touches of red chalk on cream laid paper, the sheet reveals the artist’s characteristic approach to line and modeling. The c...
About the Artist
Baccio Bandinelli · 1493–1560
Bandinelli was the son of Michelangelo de'Brandini, a successful Florentine goldsmith. Baccio was a loyal subject of the Medici, even when they were in exile 1494-1513; consequently he was rewarded by receiving commissions after the elections to the papacy of Leo X (Giovanni de' Medici) and Clement VII (Giulio de' Medici), and after Cosimo de' Medici became Grand Duke of Tuscany in 1537. His polit...