David's Sling. Victoria C. Gardner Coates

       Contents

       Introduction

POSSESSING FREEDOM:

      The Parthenon and the Birth of Democracy in Athens

FOR LIBERTY AND BLOOD:

      Brutus and the Roman Republic

SAFEGUARD OF THE WEST:

      St. Mark’s Basilica and the Most Serene Republic of Venice

      IN THE COMPANY OF GIANTS:

      Michelangelo’s David and Renaissance Florence

      “A PRODIGIOUS GROWTH IN RICHES”:

      Rembrandt’s Night Watch and the Dutch Golden Age

      THE BEST AND THE WORST:

      David’s Marat and Revolutionary France

      A NEW ATHENS ON THE THAMES:

      The Elgin Marbles and Great Britain

      MANIFEST DESTINY:

      Bierstadt’s Rocky Mountains, Lander’s Peak and the United States of America

      ART AND VICTORY:

      Monet’s Water Lilies and the French Third Republic

      TRIAL BY FIRE:

      Picasso’s Guernica and the Threat of Fascism

       Conclusion

       Suggestions for Further Reading

       Acknowledgments

       Illustration Credits

       Index

       For George, who makes everything possible,

       and for Gardner and Gowen,

       who make everything worthwhile.

       With all my love.

       Introduction

       David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”

      I Samuel 17:45–47

      The Valley of Elah is today a quiet agricultural zone southwest of Jerusalem, not far from the small town of Zekharia. Three thousand years ago, however, it was the setting for an iconic battle between a young shepherd and a giant.

      The mighty Philistines had been trying to subdue the Israelites for years when the two armies faced off across the valley. Hoping to destroy their enemies once and for all, the Philistines proposed that the Israelites send one champion out against their most formidable warrior, Goliath, to resolve the war through single combat. For the Israelites, the odds seemed hopeless. Goliath was a colossus of a man, and the Philistines’ skilled metalworkers had equipped him with bronze armor and weapons that far outstripped anything the Israelites possessed. He taunted them daily while no one volunteered to take him on.

      After forty days, David stepped forward. He was a teenager who had been tending sheep while the Israelite warriors confronted the Philistines in the Valley of Elah. He had come to the camp bringing food for his older brothers in the army – none of whom had been brave enough to challenge Goliath. To their shame, David announced he would fight the giant himself.

      David had no armor of his own, and he felt awkward and uncomfortable in what the Israelite leader, Saul, offered him for the battle. He decided to face Goliath armed only with the slingshot he used to defend his sheep from wild beasts, confident that his skill and his pure faith in God would protect him.

      Those of lesser faith despaired. The best they hoped for was that it would be over quickly, at which point the Israelites would become slaves to the Philistines. But then a miracle happened. As Goliath approached his prey, the young man steadied himself, aimed his slingshot and stunned the giant with a single stone to the forehead. The enormous warrior tumbled to the ground. David took Goliath’s sword and cut off his head. The Israelites were victorious.

      David went on to become a great king and to found a royal house that would eventually produce Jesus Christ. But his youthful contest with the giant has long stood as a parable for the remarkable power of combining faith in the divine with human ingenuity. David’s sling was more than a primitive weapon; it was the crucial advantage that enabled the shepherd to win the day.

      Through history, various kinds of metaphorical slings have enabled individuals and societies to rise like David above seemingly insurmountable difficulties and reach impressive heights of achievement. One of the more consequential of these innovations was devised on a rocky outcropping on the Greek Peloponnesus some five hundred years after the famous confrontation between David and Goliath, by a group of men who had never heard of either of them. What the Athenians invented on their citadel was a new political system of free, self-governing people. They called it demokratia.

      Although hints of political self-determination had appeared in some ancient Mesopotamian city-states, the fact remains that until the end of the sixth century BC in Athens there was no comparable, deliberate effort to institutionalize a democratic government. The Athenians were fully conscious of their system’s novelty and would credit their freedom with empowering