Caravaggio’s David is a serious classic in the imagery of death and allegory. Although Caravaggio did not actually capture a literal execution scene as in "Judith Killing Holofernes", we are still getting the full idea of life and death and the shot gun of baggage that comes with it.
What's so interesting is how David almost appears to be not only the hero, but, kind of a judge of the situation as well. On one side, yes, he has saved the people from Goliath's wrath but also we see that he is assuming the responsibility of taking Goliath's life as well.
It's through this horrific scene, that we sort of see yet another rising theme of the time in which Caravaggio seems to have made this piece a portrait. If you look at the picture below you can see the resemblance between Goliath and Caravaggio himself.
This speculation comes to rise because in 1606, Caravaggio did murder a man (with a dagger like sword). With what one assumes as a guilty conscience and relapse in bad memory, perhaps it wasn't by artist imagination that the sword and look-alike Goliath show up in this biblical interpretation. Nonetheless, between the emotion and the story displayed in this baroque style seems to be a perfect fit for the need of exaggerated motion and drama of this time period.
-Courtney Carr-McClure
http://www.artbible.info/art/large/435.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_with_the_Head_of_Goliath_(Caravaggio),_Vienna
http://www.artble.com/artists/caravaggio/more_information/style_and_technique
i really enjoyed this post especially how Caravaggio paints the head of Goliath as himself almost like his own kind of subconscious way of dealing with his guilt. A personal sort of therapy. But i also like how the painting is so simple yet displays several different ideas.
ReplyDeleteImportant to note that the pope pardoned Caravaggio; he was such an art superstar that his more sinful acts were looked the other way.
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