Loggia di raffaello, 11, 04

Bathsheba is depicted seated on a raised terrace, combing her hair beside a washing basin, while King David watches her from a high window in the background. In the lower right, a crowd of soldiers in Roman-style armor prepares for battle, a reference to the war in which Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, was stationed. The composition uses complex architecture to separate the private act of the woman from the public, martial sphere of the men.

This work represents the Renaissance synthesis of biblical narrative with classical architectural and military aesthetics. Philosophically, the narrative of David and Bathsheba was often used in the period to illustrate the struggle between higher reason and the lower, sensual desires prompted by the eyes, a theme prevalent in Renaissance Neoplatonic discussions on the nature of love and beauty.