David Playing the Harp before Saul (1555): Art, History and Details

David Playing the Harp before Saul (1555) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Frans Floris (Netherlandish, 1519–1570).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

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.

Object facts

• Title: David Playing the Harp before Saul
• Date: 1555
• Creator attribution: Frans Floris (Netherlandish, 1519–1570)
• Culture: Netherlands, 16th century
• Type: Print
• Technique: chiaroscuro woodcut
• Dimensions: Sheet: 33.4 x 47.9 cm (13 1/8 x 18 7/8 in.)
• Collection: PR - Chiaroscuro
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1997.189

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art, “Major European Porcelain Crucifix, Pre-Columbian Figure, and Other Works Added to CMA Collection,” December 3, 1997, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.