DAVID, king of Israel, was born at Bethlehem in 1085, and died 1014 years before Christ. The history of the royal Hebrew poet is particularly recorded in the sacred writings.

David, Jacques-Louis, the founder and greatest painter of the modern French school, which he brought back to the study of nature. David was born at Paris in the year 1750, and went in 1774 to Rome, where he devoted himself particularly to historical painting. In this department of the art he soon began to evince uncommon talents. In 1784 he finished his Oath of the Horatii, which Louis XVI. had commissioned him to design from a scene in the Horaces of Corneille. This work gave an impulse to the national taste. Connoisseurs were lavish of their praises, and pronounced it unrivalled, and worthy of Raffaelle himself. In the same year he painted his Belisarius; in 1787 appeared the Death of Socrates, and others followed in succession, until his fame rose to the highest pitch. He had begun to distinguish himself also in portrait painting, and might have enjoyed a tranquil and brilliant career; but on the outbreaking of the revolution, he was seized with the universal mania, and mixed himself up with some of the most revolting transactions, which, for the sake of the art in which he excelled, we wish we could pass over. In 1789 i he finished a large painting, representing Brutus condemning his sons to death. He also furnished the designs of the numerous monuments and republican festivals of that time. In 1792 he was chosen an elector in Paris, and afterwards a deputy, and during the reign of terror he was one of the most zealous jacobins, and wholly devoted himself to Robespierre, z∖t the trial of Louis XVI. he voted for the death of that unfortunate prince. In January 1794 he presided in the convention. After the fall of Robespierre, he was in great danger, and his fame as a painter alone stood between him and the guillotine. Amongst the scenes of the revolution which David strove to immortalize by his pencil are the murders of Marat and Lepelletier, and particularly the oath in the tennis-court, and the entrance of Louis into the national assembly. In 1799 he executed the Rape of the Sabine Women, the masterpiece of his genius, for the exhibition of which he realized, it is said, 100,000 francs. In 1804 the emperor appointed him his first painter, and instructed him to execute four pieces, amongst which the coronation of Napoleon was particularly distinguished. Among his finest works of this period are many representations of the emperor, particularly that in which, as first consul, he is represented on horseback on Mount Bernard, pointing out to his troops the path which led them to victory and him to the throne. This piece is now in Berlin. In 1814 David painted Leonidas, the last work which proceeded from his pencil before he quitted Paris upon the reverses of his imperial master. When Napoleon returned from Elba he appointed David a commander of the legion of honour. After the second restoration of Louis XVIII. he was included in the decree which expatriated all the regicides. He established himself in Brussels, where he painted Cupid leaving the arms of Psyche. The last of his productions, Venus, Cupid, and the Graces disarming Mars, was much admired at Paris. David died in exile at Brussels, on the 29th of December 1825. Various opinions are entertained of the merits of this artist; but the praise of correct delineation and happy colouring are universally conceded to him. He found in the history of his times, in the commotions of which he took an active part, materials for a great number of his representations; and thus his paintings will have a value with posterity altogether independent of their merits as works of art. His most celebrated productions, the Oath of the Horatii, and the Rape of the Sabine Women, have been purchased by the French government, and placed in the gallery of the Luxembourg.