Samuel anoints David

During excavations in 1932, under the direction of historian M.I. Rostovtsev, a synagogue was discovered in Syria with well-preserved biblical frescoes. This synagogue was located in the ancient city of Dura Europos on the Euphrates and was well preserved due to the conservation of the premises in ancient times. Wanting to strengthen the defensive walls of the city, Roman soldiers covered the synagogue with sand and broken brick.

Wall painting depicting Samuel anointing David is located from the west wall of the synagogue. In the painting, Samuel larger than accompanying figures in Greco-Roman dress, anoints the youthful David in the midst of his brothers, the sons of Jesse. Here we find many aspects of cultural interaction in the sense of borrowing from the artistic styles of Palmyrene and indeed Parthian context. Flattened out, frontal style that avoids naturalism of space and spatial setting rejects individualism of posture, facial features, or expression that eschews a realism of relative dimensions to make Samuel much larger than the sons of Jesse.Yet this is combined with traditional Roman forms of dress, that were presumably dominant in the city of Dura when the mural was made, no later than 245, in the period when the city was under Roman rule as it had been since 165. The mix of Roman and Syrian elements helped create a new iconography for a religion that may only then have been developing an extended narrative tradition for representing its scriptures.

Today mural painting is in National Museum of Damascus.

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