The Toilet of Bathsheba

Francis van Bossuit’s (1635-92) The Toilet of Bathsheba is a relief in ivory depicting the scene in which King David spied on, and fell in love with, Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, his general. The piece has always been regarded as an important work by van Bossuit, one of the greatest sculptors of his age. Bathsheba is shown as early modern man would have thought an attractive woman should look: somewhat plump and with a straight, prominent nose. If ivory admitted colour, she would have remained as pale as we now see her, for a sun tan indicated a lowly social class, on account of toiling in the fields. David can be seen in the background, goggling over his balcony. He is denied the full frontal to which we, the viewers, are treated, along with the old crone’s exaggerated features and ugly countenance, which is the true appearance of adulterous romance to which David is not yet made privy.

Here, it is what David cannot see from his balcony which is the greater tragedy. Temptation shows us the pleasure, but not the pain; the thrill, but not the consequence. Eve beheld a juicy fruit, but not the Fall; David saw a beauitful body but not two resulting deaths; Judas eyed a bag of silver, but not a hopeless noose.