Saul and David

Saul and David from around 1650-55 in the Mauritshuis treats the First Book of Samuel's account of David playing the harp to soothe the madness of King Saul — a scene of music as medicine and spiritual intervention that is itself one of the Bible's most psychologically rich passages. Rembrandt's treatment focuses entirely on Saul's face, which reveals a complexity of emotion difficult to name: anguish, envy, momentary solace, and the returning jealousy that will eventually drive him to hurl a javelin at David. The subject had attracted Flemish Baroque painters before Rembrandt, but none had achieved this degree of psychological depth in the king's expression. Recent technical analysis has confirmed that the large curtain Saul holds, previously thought to be a later addition that obscured the original composition, is integral to Rembrandt's design — the king's tears and the cloth he presses to his face form a single meditation on grief that can only be temporarily comforted. The Mauritshuis holds the painting alongside Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring and Fabritius's Goldfinch in the Netherlands' most celebrated small collection.

Rembrandt captures the psychological drama through the contrast between Saul's illuminated, anguished face and David's half-hidden figure in shadow. The paint surface ranges from thick impasto on Saul's turban to thin, translucent layers on the curtain, demonstrating the master's full technical range.