Saul and David

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 combination of precise ink contours and subtle chalk shading allowed Bandinelli to suggest both anatomical structure and emotional tension within a compact format measuring roughly ten by fifteen inches. Drawings like this one served as vital preparatory studies in Renaissance workshops, bridging the gap between an artist’s initial idea and its realization in more permanent media. Preserved today in the Art Institute of Chicago’s Prints and Drawings, the work offers visitors an intimate glimpse into Bandinelli’s creative process and the enduring appeal of biblical narrative in early modern art.

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...