David and Goliath (or David with the Head of Goliath or DavidVictorious over Goliath) is a painting by the Italian Baroquemaster Caravaggio (1571–1610). It was painted in about 1599, and isheld in the Museo del Prado, Madrid. Two later versions of the sametheme are currently to be seen in Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna(David with the Head of Goliath), and in Rome's Galleria Borghese(David with the Head of Goliath).
The David and Goliath in the Prado was painted in the earlypart of the artist's career, while he was a member of the householdof Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte. It shows the Biblical Davidas a young boy (in accordance with the Bible story) fastening thehead of the champion of the Philistines, the giant Goliath, by thehair. The light catches on David's leg, arm and flank, on themassive shoulders from which Goliath's head has been severed, andon the head itself, but everything else is dark. Even David's faceis almost invisible in the shadows. A wound on Goliath's foreheadshows where he has been felled by the stone from David's sling. Theoverwhelming impression is of some action intensely personal andprivate - no triumph, no armies, no victory.
Caravaggio originally showed Goliath's face fixed in wild-eyedopen-mouthed terror, tongue rolling, eyeballs swivelled to theedges of the sockets[citation needed]. In the finished painting themelodrama is banished: the drama is transferred from Goliath to thequietly efficient David, his face almost hidden, intent on his workwith his hands in his enemy's hair, kneeling almost casually on theman's torso.
This painting and two others done at about the same time – thefirst version of Sacrifice of Isaac and the first John the Baptist– were taken to Spain shortly after they were made, where they werefrequently copied and made a deep impression on art in thatcountry.
References
Langdon, Helen (1998).Caravaggio: A Life. ISBN 0-374-11894-9.
Robb, Peter (1998). M. ISBN0-312-27474-2.
