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David with the Head of Goliath, Caravaggio, c. 1600

Baroque · c. 1600

David with the Head of Goliath

Caravaggio 1571–1610

Museo del Prado · Madrid

A boy stoops in the dark to thread a cord through a giant's severed head, as Caravaggio turns triumph into grim, absorbed, ordinary labour.

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The story of David with the Head of Goliath

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Chapter 1 of 6

The moment after

Caravaggio paints the moment after the kill. A boy stoops over the head of a giant, threading a cord through it to carry his trophy away, and the whole drama unfolds in a shallow box of darkness. There is no landscape, no army, no God in the clouds, only raking light that strikes David's bare shoulder and the dead man's brow and lets everything else fall to near-black.

Made in Rome around 1600, it turns a triumph into something quieter and stranger: a child absorbed in grim, practical work.

Where to see it

Museo del Prado

Madrid

Room 7A · Level 1

The Hear Art 3D museum guide walks you to it.

Public domain image via Wikimedia Commons.

More by Caravaggio

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The AnnunciationFra Angelico · c. 1426The Descent from the CrossRogier van der Weyden · c. 1435Self-PortraitAlbrecht Dürer · 1498The Garden of Earthly DelightsHieronymus Bosch · c. 1505The Haywain TriptychHieronymus Bosch · c. 1516Equestrian Portrait of Charles VTitian · 1548

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