David and Jonathan

The National Gallery puts a question mark after this title, and the reason is the second young man. The one with the curly hair is plainly David. He carries a great sword over his shoulder and the severed head of Goliath by its hair, and the sling that brought the giant down hangs from his belt. His companion, with a spear and a red cloak, is probably Jonathan, son of King Saul and David's close friend. Probably is as far as anyone can go. The pair is a rare subject, and no one knows who ordered this small panel or what it was for. Cima seems to have borrowed a layout used for Tobias walking with the archangel Raphael, two figures side by side on a country road. Behind them the road and a river run back toward a single point on the horizon, past a castle on a crag.