| David with the Head of Goliath is a late painting by Girolamo Forabosco, and shows the kind of soft surface modelling that blurs outlines and atmospherically blends together the figure and its surroundings. The victory of the shepherd boy David over the giant Goliath is seen in the Old Testament as an example of the power of God overcoming an apparently greater evil (1 Samuel 17). Forabosco’s painting does not show the triumphal aspect of David’s victory, but illustrates the Old Testament account almost literally: “And David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem” (1 Samuel 17, 54). The enormous head, wounded by a stone from David’s sling, weighs heavily upon the boy. It also symbolizes the weight of a bloody deed that contrasts starkly with the boy’s dreamy features. Like the image of carrying, the animal skin he has wrapped around his body is reminiscent of images of Hercules. Here, then, the Old Testament hero and founder of the kingdom of Israel, David, is associated with the mythological hero and founder of civilization. The fluent curves of the boy’s body still echo the northern Italian Mannerism of Forabosco’s first teacher, Padovanino, whilst Titian’s legacy is clearly revealed in the painterly manner in which the theme is handled: light and colour, rather than line and perspective, define the painting. |
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Oil on canvas
height 121 cm, width 97 cm
Inv.-No. GE38
Provenance: 1733 identified by seal as entail
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