Manuscript Illumination with David in Prayer in an Initial M, from a Psalter

Manuscript Illumination with David in Prayer in an Initial M, from a Psalter

Girolamo dai Libri

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Like the singing monks in Girolamo dai Libri's miniature executed for the same psalter (displayed nearby), David appears here in prayer with his mouth open and his gaze turned heavenward. In many images of David, God the Father appears above him as the object of his inspiration. Like the monks, he appears to look beyond the frame of the initial, as if he were reading the text of the psalter.

Medieval Art and The Cloisters

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Manuscript Illumination with David in Prayer in an Initial M, from a PsalterManuscript Illumination with David in Prayer in an Initial M, from a PsalterManuscript Illumination with David in Prayer in an Initial M, from a PsalterManuscript Illumination with David in Prayer in an Initial M, from a PsalterManuscript Illumination with David in Prayer in an Initial M, from a Psalter

The Museum's collection of medieval and Byzantine art is among the most comprehensive in the world. Displayed in both The Met Fifth Avenue and in the Museum's branch in northern Manhattan, The Met Cloisters, the collection encompasses the art of the Mediterranean and Europe from the fall of Rome in the fourth century to the beginning of the Renaissance in the early sixteenth century. It also includes pre-medieval European works of art created during the Bronze Age and early Iron Age.