David Before the Ark of the Covenant

Correggio's David Before the Ark of the Covenant (c. 1515) is a rare Old Testament subject in his largely New Testament oeuvre, depicting the young king dancing before the Ark as it was brought to Jerusalem. The scene of David's ecstatic dance — which his wife Michal scorned as undignified — was occasionally interpreted as a prefiguration of the dance of the angels before the divine presence, and Correggio's treatment may have engaged with this typological tradition. The combination of Old Testament narrative with the qualities of movement and music that the dancing subject required gave Correggio an unusual opportunity to explore the relationship between physical and spiritual ecstasy.

The warm palette and developing sfumato technique show Correggio moving beyond his Mantegnesque training toward the luminous, atmospheric style that would define his mature work.