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This initial appears at the beginning of the Psalms' text in a thirteenth-century French Bible, and it depicts King David playing the harp. As a youth, David attempted to drive the evil spirits away from King Saul by playing music; after David inherited the throne, he accompanied his prayers and supplications to God on a musical instrument.
David is facing the viewer, but his upper body is turned to one side; a compositional element closely related to those of the musical royal figures decorating the gates of French cathedrals (Autun, Moissac). The emphatic largeness of the strumming hands and the expressive details of the gentle face are coupled with delicate colouring.
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