Tapestry 'David and Bathsheba' (from 'The Story of David' series)

This is obviously a fragment of a much larger composition. The composition is incomplete on the left side. The lower part was also probably cut off. There is also a difference in the borders framing the tapestry: the one of the left with a ribbon braided between flowers differs to the others on the right hand side, along the top and the bottom; the latter are not only missing ribbons but the flowers appear in a more dense arrangement. A young man is visible in the foreground of the acquired tapestry, communicating with an anonymous (cut away) figure. Beside him three women inspect a basket containing flowers. Behind them is a woman playing a mandolin and two men are playing flutes. In the background, just right of the centre is an elderly bearded man with a crown, wearing a decoratively ornamented, jewel-decorated cape and holding a sceptre – King David. Before him stands a decorative, spiralled column. The king is surrounded by his courtiers – two young male figures on the left, two in the centre and three on the right. The figures are wearing Late Gothic and Early Renaissance style clothing. The costumes of the ladies in the foreground and David are particularly decorative. The scene is taking place amid a background of ornamented, purple velvet drapery and a stylised landscape.
The tapestry is framed in a narrow border – fine blossoms on a dark blue background. As mentioned earlier, the left border differs to the rest. The illustration of flowers is also different: ribbons have been braided into the bouquets.
The tapestry depicts the story of David, King of Jerusalem, and Bathsheba described in the Old Testament. It is written in the Bible: “One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, ʻShe is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittiteʼ. Then David sent messengers to get her”. (2 Sam 11, 2–4). Only half of the biblical narrative is visible in the tapestry. King David is easily recognisable, appearing in the background standing beside a column holding a sceptre. In the scene, the king is surrounded by courtiers: one is bowing before the ruler, informing him about the woman he enquired about, as written in the Bible.
The missing part of the composition can be partly reconstructed from tapestries kept in museums in Los Angeles, Brussels, Madrid and Warsaw depicting analogous subject matter. In these textiles we see that the bowing courtier shown in the foreground is probably passing on the king՚s invitation to the daughter of Eliam and Uriah՚s wife, Bathsheba, who is standing by the fountain. Based on the samples of similar textiles still found in collections abroad, further left of Bathsheba the composition could have continued with a cluster of ladies watching in the foreground, and other ladies and young men engaging in frivolities in the background.
Like the other characters depicted in the acquired fragment of the tapestry, Bathsheba was probably shown dressed in Late Gothic and Early Renaissance era costume.
Nevertheless, the compositions in the afore-mentioned similar tapestries are rather different, thus it is impossible to state that the complete tapestry was identical. Works depicting David and Bathsheba were very popular in the 14th–16th centuries; the spread of these characters was associated with the moral duty to confess after committing a crime, and the righteousness of the ruler as having received divine authority from God himself.