By Kind Permission of a Private Collection
By Kind Permission of a Private Collection
Claude Lorrain, Landscape with David at the Cave of Adullam (1658), (Oil on canvas, 112.4 x 185cm). National Gallery, Number 6. The painting is known to Ruskin in Modern Painters I as Sinon before Priam. It is based on an Old Testament story, narrated in 2 Samuel 23, of King David. When the Israelites were beseiged by the Philistines, King David, encamped at the cave of Adullam, wished for water from a well in Bethlehem. Three of David's bravest soldiers risked their lives to enter Bethlehem to answer his request. However, on their return David refused to drink the water and instead 'poured it out before the Lord' declaring 'Far be it from me, O Lord, to do this... Is it not the blood of men who went at the risk of their lives?' (2 Samuel. 16-17). The National Gallery Catalogue notes that the painting 'corresponds with Liber Veritatis drawing no.145' and that the inscription 'shows the painting to have been made for Prince Agostino Chigi (1634-1705), a nephew of Pope Alexander VII and captain of the papal guards' ( National Gallery Catalogue, p.127). Ruskin briefly refers to the painting in Modern Painters III, 'Of the Teachers of Turner' ( Works, 5.405-6).
Claude Gellée (le Lorrain) 1600-82
David at the Cave of Adullam 1658
Oil on canvas, 112.4x185cm
Provenance: Painted for Agstino Chigi, 1658; Holwell Carr Bequest, 1831
Collection: National Gallery, London