Michol

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Michol is recalled by Dante as the woman who, from the window of the palace, watched King David dance and leap before the ark of the Lord. According to the critical notes on canto X of the Purgatorio, she was the daughter of Saul and the wife of David. Dante captures her in an act of disdain, describing her as «dispettosa e trista» as she judges the king's humiliation according to the world's standards, without recognizing its spiritual greatness in the eyes of God. The scene is reproduced in marble on the steps of Purgatory, where the two groups of panels represent episodes from David's life set against stages of pride punished and rewarded. The figure of Michol, placed on the right-hand side of the storied scene, serves as the terminal wing of the sequence, as occurs with Mary on the opposite side.