David and Bathsheba

David and Bathsheba, circa 1540, in the Walters Art Museum Baltimore, depicts the Old Testament episode in which King David, observing Bathsheba bathing from his palace roof, sends for her and begins the affair that will lead to the death of her husband Uriah and to divine punishment. The subject combined the erotic appeal of the female bathing nude with biblical narrative, making it acceptable for painting even in Counter-Reformation contexts. Bordone's treatment follows the established Venetian formula: Bathsheba nude or semi-draped bathing, attendants, and David's figure visible in a distant loggia or rooftop. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore's great civic art collection, holds this as part of its distinguished holdings of Italian Renaissance painting.

The composition divides between foreground (Bathsheba bathing, attended by women) and background (David watching from his palace), creating narrative distance between observer and observed. Bathsheba's nude form is the pictorial centrepiece, rendered with warm Venetian flesh tones. The attendant figures provide spatial context and compositional variety.