El rey David

The Master of Becerril, an anonymous Spanish painter active in Castile, depicted King David around 1525. David, the shepherd-king of Israel and author of the Psalms, was one of the most important figures in both Jewish and Christian tradition. The painting is in the Museo del Prado. The tempera-on-panel medium required a carefully gessoed surface and was painted in fine, precise layers, yielding a luminous, jewel-like surface of great durability.

The royal figure is rendered with the formal gravity characteristic of Spanish devotional painting. The Hispano-Flemish style reflects the dominant artistic tradition of Castile in the early sixteenth century.