King David Depicted as a Shepherd

This miniature illustrates the second verse of Psalm 151, which reads: “I tended my father’s sheep; my hands made an organ and my fingers tuned a psaltery.” In the left part of the scene, David is depicted in his role as shepherd, leaning on the typical curved staff (the pedum) beside his flock. At the centre, he is found again seated on a hill performing a double symbolic gesture: with his right hand he points to the open book of Psalms placed on an altar, while with his left he directs attention toward a pipe organ on the right. The image, inserted immediately before the fourth verse of the same Psalm, serves as a visual link between the humble life of David the shepherd and his future glory as the royal musician and sacred author.