The Fugitive David
Author: Workshop of Simão Álvares (?)
Date: 17th century, middle
Material: Oil on chestnut
Dimensions (cm): H 83 x W 102,4
Provenance: Guimarães, Convento de Santa Clara
Inventory No.: MAS P 19
This painting alludes to the passage from the Old Testament, entitled David in Nob (as the legend that is present indicates: JºRE C.21). David runs away from the death sentences ordered by King Saul, who fears his strength and envies his success. David pretends to be on a secret mission under King Saul’s order, with the aim of receiving the shewbread, reserved to the priests.
This panel is part of a wider group (MAS P 17 to MAS P 29 and MAS P 60) that is included in the collections of the Museum. They are oil-on-wood paintings that were discovered by the first director of the Museu de Alberto Sampaio, Alfredo Guimarães, behind a false wall of the former Casa do Cabido of the Colegiada de Santa Maria da Oliveira, that were then included in the heritage fund of the Museum (1947).
Recent researches permit us to conclude that this group of paintings belonged to the extinct Convento de Santa Clara, decorating the sacristy.
The authorship of this set of panels is currently attributed to an unknown local master. One of the hypotheses advanced considers that these works may have resulted from the Guimarães workshop of Simão Álvares, but, considering the iconographic and style characteristics, one concludes that at least two painters were involved, one of them being more agile in the drawing and more erudite, since some of the panels reveal a technical mastery and a superior quality.
It was also possible to conclude that the main iconographical source that was used were the Nordic mannerist engravings by the xylographer Jost Amman (1539 – 1591) (edited in Frankfurt in 1580). The Old Testament themes are very unusual in 17th-century Portuguese art, the painters and the people commissioning them preferring themes such as those related to Christ’s, the saints’ or the Virgin’s lives, and, thus the use of foreign illustrations as source of inspiration for the depiction of other biblical themes.