Il profeta Davide

In 1497 Perugino was about the most sought-after painter in Italy, running busy workshops in Florence and Perugia and turning out the serene, softly lit figures that patrons everywhere wanted. This small round panel of the prophet David once sat within a much larger altarpiece, the kind of multi-panel structure later broken up and scattered, which is how a single Old Testament king ends up alone on a wall in Nantes. David holds a scroll and gazes off with the calm, faintly dreamy expression that was Perugino's trademark. Around this time a young apprentice from Urbino was learning in his shop, Raphael, who would take that gentle manner and outgrow his teacher within a decade.