David with the head of Goliath

In this powerful scene, newfound champion of the Israelites, David, holds aloft the severed head of the defeated Philistine warrior, Goliath, in his left hand, and the bloodied sword used to deliver the fatal blow in his right. The composition exemplifies Crespi’s renowned ability to create innovative scenes of intense drama.

Nancy Ward Neilson published the present work as an autograph variant of the painting in the Borromeo Collection, Isola Bella, dating both to circa 1623-24 (op cit., p. 65). Although the compositions are similar, the two paintings are not identical; in the present work David’s victory is underlined by his triumphant stance, standing on the armoured, severed body of Goliath. There are also some minor differences in the details of the background. A painting of the same subject by Crespi was listed in a 1684 inventory of the Potro Collection, Milan, but Ward Neilson acknowledges that it is impossible to know whether it refers to the present work, or that in the Borromeo Collection (op. cit., p. 65).

Crespi was one of the leading Milanese artists from the early Baroque period, much in demand for his distinctive style, which represented a turning point between late Mannerism and Lombard Caravaggism. Owing to the artist's untimely death, his career only lasted for some ten years. Some of his finest works can still be seen in situ at the Carthusian monastery of Saint Ambrose in Garegnano, Milan, and in Pavia.