Collection Online as of February 29, 2020
David Playing the Harp before Saul
Frans Floris
(Dutch, 1519-1570)
Chiaroscuro woodcut
Support: Beige (2) laid paper
Sheet: 33.4 x 47.9 cm (13 1/8 x 18 7/8 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1997.189
Catalogue raisonné: Hollstein I, Strauss 101, Bialler 3a/e
Location
not on view
Description
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.