Creator Holanda, Francisco de

Medium Artwork: Drawing

City | Region Portugal | Old kingdom Portugal

Artwork
Illustration of a weeping King David playing the vihuela, from Francisco de Holanda’s manuscript book De aetatibus mundi imagines preserved in the Biblioteca Nacional de España (shelf no DIB/14/26), illustration LXIII according to the author’s own numbering. It is dated 1545 in the BNE catalogue. On the digital copy of the book in the Biblioteca Digital Hispanica, it is on frame 67. King David is depicted in the mouth of a cave or grotto in the garden of a renaissance palace. The inscription beneath the illustration is a biblical verse, (Samuel 12:13): “Et dixit DAVID ad Nathan: Peccavi DOMINO. Dixitque Nathan ad DAVID DOMINUS quoque transtulit peccatum tuum, non morieris” (And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, The Lord also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.) The Greek word “metamalia” is also inscribed on the soundboard of the vihuela, beneath bridge. It means “repentance” or “contrition”.

Instrument
The vihuela is fancifully depicted, possibly to give it a more biblical appearance, in the manner of a classical lyre. Similarly, the pegbox featuring the head of an eagle or some other bird of prey is also probably exaggerated. These features are combined with other characteristics of a large vihuela of the period. Compared to the body of king David who plays it, the instrument is quite large. The body is bell-shaped as is seen in other illustrations of the time (15-330, 15-339, 16-134, 16-147, 16-164), the scrolls at the top of the instrument are only found on one other depiction (16-147) of French provenance. The instrument has a flat bridge onto which the word “Metamalia” is inscribed. The soundboard has a single round hole, just above the centre.The neck of the instrument is depicted in such a way as to suggest that it could be a monoxyl construction. It is fretted up to the 7th fret (althought the 6th is missing) with double frets. The pegbox is of Italianate style, channelled with lateral pegs. Fouor are visible on the treble side, and at least two are visible on the bass side. The instrument has six single strings and the playing technique shows the thumb and index finger touching, perhaps as if holding a plectrum or plucking with the thumb just in front of the index finger.

Image
The image is taken from the Biblioteca Digital Hispana, (bdh0000137315)