David with His Foot in a Noose in an Initial O
Domenico Morone
ca. 1500 · Tempera and gold on parchment · Robert Lehman Collection
Initial O introducing the Introit (opening chant) to the Mass for the third Sunday of Lent, Psalm 24:15: Oculi mei semper ad Dominumquia ipse ellevet de laqueopedesmeos, “My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for he shall pluck my feet out of the snare.” This vibrantly colored initial portrays David holding the end of a noose around his foot while looking toward heaven to the hand of God. It is among a small group of miniatures by the Veronese painter Domenico Morone and belonged to an unidentified choir book known as a gradual that was likely made for a Franciscan monastery, perhaps San Bernardino di Verona. Domenico is known primarily for his panel paintings and large-scale frescoes for churches in the Veneto. His hard, linear style, sculpturesque figures, plastic manner of rendering drapery, and rocky landscape reveal the influence of the Paduan master Andrea Mantegna.
- Artist
- Domenico Morone
- Date
- ca. 1500
- Medium
- Tempera and gold on parchment
- Department
- Robert Lehman Collection
- Credit line
- Robert Lehman Collection, 1975
