The Story of David and Goliath

Florence in the 1450s had a soft spot for David, the shepherd boy who beat a giant, much as the city liked to picture itself against bigger enemies. Emblems linked to the Medici appear among the soldiers here, which is why this long panel is thought to have been made for a Medici wedding. Pesellino tells the whole story in one landscape, to be read from left to right along a stream that winds through the scenes. The hero, dressed in pink, first minds his flocks, then stoops to pick his stones from the brook, then stands before King Saul and refuses the armour he is offered. In the middle of the battle he takes aim with his sling at Goliath. In the foreground the Philistine lies face down, and the boy is drawing the fallen man's own sword to cut off his head.