Bowdoin College Museum of Art | - David Cutting Off the Head of Goliath (after Giulio Romano)

Preview image of work. engraving on paper, David Cutting Off the Head of Goliath (after Giulio Romano) 15656

2007.22.11

Recommend keywords

Help us make our collections more accessible by providing keywords to describe this artwork. The BCMA uses the Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurus to provide consistent keywords. Enter a keyword in the field below and you will be prompted with a list of possible matching AAT preferred terms.

David Cutting Off the Head of Goliath (after Giulio Romano)

Export record as: Plain text | JSON | CDWA-Lite | VRA Core 4

Artists

Giovanni Battista Scultori (1503 - 1546); [after Giulio Romano (Giulio Pippi)]

Title

David Cutting Off the Head of Goliath (after Giulio Romano)

Creation Date

1540

Century

mid-16th century

Dimensions

14 3/8 in. x 18 5/16 in. (36.5 cm x 46.5 cm)

Object Type

Creation Place

Europe, Italy

Medium and Support

engraving on paper

Credit Line

Gift of Judith Keenan

Copyright

Public Domain

Accession Number

2007.22.11

Mannerist artists in Italy and northern Europe reveled in scenes of violent conflict, often pitting young or beautiful victors over brutish antagonists. In Scultori’s interpretation of Giulio Romano’s fresco in Mantua, the young hero David draws his arm back to behead his fallen enemy, the giant Philistine Goliath, whom he has subdued with his sling and stone. In this representation of the Biblical narrative, the hero straddles the armored body of his grotesquely contorted foe, brandishing his enemy’s own massive sword. It reveals a moment preceding the more famous representation of David holding Goliath’s severed head. Goliath’s ornate helmet at right is engraved with a lion entangled in curling vines and a thunderbolt. Such ornate touches, copied from antique sculpture, contrast jarringly with the uglified face and awkwardly sprawling body of the defeated enemy.