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The Treasury of Basel Cathedral
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Statuette of King David, about 1280 (Virgin and Child, incorporating a cameo of about 1150); about 1290–1300 (figure of David, incorporating an antique cameo of the 2nd or 3rd century A.D.); about 1320 or shortly thereafter (reliquary group); 15th century (crown and base)
Upper Rhineland, possibly Constance
Raised, cast, and cut gold, with a sardonyx cameo, glass, and garnet (David and the Virgin); raised, cast, and gilded silver, with translucent basse-taille enamel, glass, and gemstones (crown, lower section); and gilded wood (base); H. (overall) 8 1/2 in. (21.6 cm)
Historisches Museum Basel
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Description
The gold statuette of King David is one of the more eccentric objects to have survived from the late Middle Ages. The countenance is an antique cameo of a Gorgon's head. The figure holds an inscribed banderole in his distorted hands. Above, atop a cameo of a lion that appears to hover in space, stands a diminutive gold image of the Virgin and Child. David was conceived as a saintly cult image; in a typological context, he was regarded as one of Christ's forebear and the lion symbolized the tribe of Judah, the ancestors of Christ. David originally may have balanced the Virgin and Child in one hand and a lion in the other—thus, holding the Old and the New Testaments. This reading is underscored by the inscription: "King David, of strong hands, and fortuitous vision [declares], 'Behold my descendant, the Savior of the world, whom, with divine inspiration, I have prophesized.'" The statuette was given to the Treasury by Master Johannes, physician to Duke Leopold I of Austria (about 1290–1326), along with an endowment for an annual Mass to pray for his soul.
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