The Triumph of David

The Triumph of David, painted around 1445 and now at the National Gallery in London, depicts the procession of the victorious young David returning from his defeat of Goliath—women singing and dancing to greet the hero, as described in 1 Samuel 18. The subject was popular in Florentine art as a celebration of civic virtue and youthful heroism; David had been a symbol of Florence's self-image since the Republic's opposition to Milanese tyranny in the early fifteenth century. Pesellino's version is a cassone panel—painted for a wedding chest—and its celebration of military triumph and popular jubilation was appropriate to such domestic and celebratory contexts.

Cassone panels required horizontal compositions that could be read along their length—a narrative unfolding from one end to the other. Pesellino organises the triumph as a procession, with the victorious David at the compositional centre and celebrating figures arranged before and behind. His refined figure drawing and bright tempera colours suit the festive subject.