LORENZO Monaco
(b. ca. 1370, Siena (?), d. ca. 1425, Firenze)

David

1408-10
Tempera on panel, 57 x 43 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

There are four panels in the Metropolitan Museum in New York representing Old Testament patriarchs, which are among the finest works of Lorenzo Monaco, who, at the time the panels were painted, was the leading master in Florence. The four patriarchs (Abraham, Noah, Moses, and David) are each portrayed seated on a cut stone bench or chest set on a fictive marble dais, which is alternately pink with a strip of green in the foreground (Noah and David) or green with a strip of violet in the foreground (Abraham and Moses).

David wears a green cloak lined with salmon pink over a blue robe with gilt collar, cuffs, and hem and blue shoes. He plays a lyre, which he holds before him on his left knee.

The function of these four paintings, possibly as flanking elements of an altarpiece, has been debated.