This picture is unusual for Pot as he mostly painted guardroom pieces and a few portraits. Given the presence of the harp and the crown, the painting almost certainly depicts King David in the act of writing the Psalms, his regal position is indicated by the crown and the harp he played before Saul. There is no specific source for David’s authorship of the psalms, but it is based on tradition. The psalms were also of great importance in the seventeenth century Protestant tradition.

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