61.  SAUL AND DAVID

Whenever the [evil] spirit of God came upon Saul, David would take the lyre and play it; Saul would find relief and feel better, and the evil spirit would leave him.
I Samuel XVI. 23

Chagall portrays the young David as described in the Bible: ruddy-cheeked, handsome, and skilled in music. Chagall's rendering, seems to be a reversed view of Rembrandt's great painting of the same scene. David's simple robe is filled with light, symbolizing God's spirit in him. Saul, however, is shrouded in black, symbolizing the darkness of evil spirits besetting him. Chagall embellishes the composition with the decorative details of Saul's jeweled crown, elaborately carved throne (with the anachronistic star of David), and the elegantly carved columns and tiles of Saul's court.

Chagall's loving treatment of David in this etching evokes his love for his younger brother, whom he also portrayed as a musician in David in Profile (1914). About the young David, who died of tuberculosis in the Crimea, Chagall wrote: "His name is sweeter than a line of horizons and to me it breathes the perfume of my native land."

Chagall devotes fourteen etchings in the Bible to David, the prophet nearest to Chagall's heart because he was an artist. This cycle describes David's complex personality, full of virtues and flaws. The images of David became the prototypes for many of Chagall's works during the 1950s and 1960s: his Biblical Message paintings, his stained glass windows for Metz Cathedral, and his tapestries for Israel's Knesset. Chagall occasionally combines the persona of David with the tragic mythical musician Orpheus during these decades in his mural The Sources of Music (1965-66) for New York's Metropolitan Opera House, in his monumental painting The Concert (1957), and in the Nef Collection mosaic in Washington, D.C.

(Chagall and the Bible, Rosensaft, 1987, pg. 143)