International studio (55.1915)

What Tale does this 'Tapestry Tell ?


FROM A BOOK OF HOURS
must be the picture of David and Bath-sheba
which shows the king on the roof. The mediaeval
artist had-never seen the roof of an Oriental house,
flat, parapetted and the resort of the household “in
eventide,” which was the hour when David saw
Bath-sheba. Mediaeval (European) roofs were
steep and impossible to walk upon, and hence the
mediaeval artist almost invariably shows David
looking out of an upper window or out of a porch
or balcony. In the background of the tapestry
there is shown, interestingly enough, the roof of a
mediaeval house, and it may be taken as some
expression by the artist as to why it was impossi-
ble for him to represent David walking upon a
roof. The roof is shown between the canopy of
the fountain and the column of the porch that
David is on. A typical mediaeval housetop may be
seen in Diirer’s well-known print of the Prodigal
among the Swine. In fact, I have seen many pic-
tures of David and Bath-sheba, but I do not recall
any wherein the artist has put David upon the
roof of a mediaeval house.
Here is an interesting illustration from a Book
of Hours, written and illuminated in Normandy
by a French artist of the early fifteenth century.
It shows David looking out of a balcony at Bath-
sheba washing herself. Upon the opposite page is
David Singing a Song of Lamentation. Note
the Norman castle which David lives in and the
Norman bathtub which Bath-sheba is using,
the Norman clothing of her attendants, and even
her Norman shoes.

The design of this David
and Bath-sheba is followed
in many of the Books of
Hours printed in Paris be-
fore and after 1500. For
example, I cite a Book of
Hours printed by Simon
Vostre in Paris in 1498.
David is looking out of the
window of a Gothic build-
ing—not from the roof. In a
Book of Hours printed by
Kerver in Paris in 1514,
David is looking out of the
windowof a fifteenth-century
castle—not from the roof.
In the tapestry the scene
is laid “at eventide.” Bath-
sheba is washing. There are
two attendants with towels
—not-very roman tic articles.
David wears a crown, is
clothed with ermine and holds a sceptre. He is
leering at Bath-sheba with manifest desire. The
old lady to his right seems to have noticed his
actions and is shown as if dissuading him from sin.
He has sent his messenger, who is in the act of
speaking to Bath-sheba, and finally David is
shown in the conventional way adopted by the
mediaeval artist, and which has descended to our
own times in the king of hearts of the euchre
pack.
Almost all Scriptural characters were given
conventional portraits in the middle ages. They
had been represented by artists conventionally for
generations, and upon this convention the Church
set her approval, and seldom indeed, therefore, do
we find an artist hardy enough to break away
from David’s well-known portrait. Here is the
face of David shown in the conventional way by a
French artist of the late fourteenth century. It is
from a “Life of the Virgin,” written and illu-
minated upon vellum.
There is David Singing a Song of Penitence, from
a Book of Hours written in Normandy in the late
fifteenth century, being Manuscript 131 of the
Fitzwilliam Museum, as catalogued by James in
1895.
Look now upon all of the other representations of
David, as given above, and it will be seen at once
that the crowned and ermined figure in the tapes-
try is the conventional David that we find
everywhere in mediaeval pictures. It is David
himself.

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