David presenting the head of Goliath to Saul

Born in Rome in 1585, Angelo Caroselli was an experimental, self-taught and highly original artist. His corpus stands out for its idiosyncratic compositions that show allegories, necromancers and musicians, as well as religious and history painting. His style shows the clear influence of Caravaggio, and his effective use of chiaroscuro earned significant commissions in Rome, for Palazzo Borghese and Palazzo Doria Pamphilj, and beyond in Florence, where he produced pictures for Cosimo II de’ Medici. He was a member of the Accademia di San Luca from 1608 to 1636, and had strong connections with leading artists in the early seventeenth century, notably Pietro Paolini, with whom he worked closely. Caroselli later married Brigitta Lauri, the sister of Filippo Lauri and daughter of Balthasar Lauwers (or Lauri), the Flemish painter who settled in Italy.

This particular scene of David presenting the head of Goliath to Saul is described in the Book of Samuel. After slaying Goliath, David took the head of the Philistine back to Jerusalem where Abner, the commander of the army, took David before King Saul. It is a relatively unusual choice to represent this part of the story of David and Goliath, with many pictures focused on the immediate aftermath of David’s triumph. The presentation of the head is shown here as a moment of intense drama, with David still holding his slingshot and sword and Saul looking on in astonishment.