2018

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Collection: Copyright Collezione Villa Borghese.

Caravaggio painted David and Goliath three times, but this version from the Galleria Borghese is the most dramatic and the most iconic. (The two other versions, from an earlier date and totally different from this one, are located in the Prado in Madrid and the Gemäldegalerie of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.)

Caravaggio experts almost unanimously agree that the Goliath in this scene is a self-portrait of Caravaggio, and that it is one of the last images he has painted.

In the Old Testament book of Samuel, David is the fearless young boy who kills the Philistine giant Goliath with one well-aimed shot from his slingshot.

In Caravaggio's painting, David grabs the severed head of Goliath by the hair and holds it out in front of him like a trophy. His stretched-out arm and the sword with which the decapitation was effected, form a perfect quadrangle.

Yet Caravaggio's David does not seem proud of his achievement. On the contrary, he looks down on Goliath with a mixture of sadness, regret and compassion. The head of Goliath clearly shows the wound the stone made in his forehead. Blood is dripping from the neck of the severed head that was just separated from the body. The light in his eyes will extinguish at any moment. His open mouth seems to emit a final death rattle.

Virtually all modern Caravaggio biographers relate this image to the plight of the painter after the murder of Ranuccio Tomassoni. Caravaggio was a hunted man since that fateful evening of May 28, 1606. In Rome a death sentence had been pronounced against him – a sentence that, in those days, was often performed by beheading. He had been on the run for years: from Rome to Naples, then to Malta, Sicily and back to Naples. He did not stay long anywhere, because he saw danger everywhere. And rightfully so. The death penalty was also a fatwa: any bounty hunter could deliver the head of a sentenced person to the pope. That is where the term 'headhunting' comes from. In Italy, at the time, there were gangs that made a living out of it.

'David with the head of Goliath' is a clear reference to that situation, albeit an ambiguous one. The painting can be read as the expression of a death wish: Caravaggio/Goliath is tired of being hunted and finally exhaustedly accepts the fate that has been awaiting him for years. With a last dramatic, masterful gesture, the painter welcomes the peace that death will bring.

But it is much more likely that this painting was meant to save his skin. Already since his flight from Rome, Caravaggio's high-ranking friends pleaded with the Pope to grant him pardon. The crucial figure in those secret negotiations was Cardinal Scipione Borghese. He was the nephew of the incumbent Pope Paul V and the treasurer and political leader of the papal state. But Borghese was also a great art lover and collector. His phenomenal collection, which for the most part came about through extortion and brutal confiscation, was housed in the Villa Borghese, the current Galleria Borghese. It contains no less than six works by Caravaggio, including this key work.

It is presumed that Caravaggio painted this 'David with the head of Goliath' in Naples, in the last year of his life, after he had heard that the Pope was about to grant his petition. It is not clear whether the canvas was an ultimate attempt to favour Scipione Borghese, or rather a payment for an already made decision. It is however certain that it was intended from the outset for Borghese.

By portraying himself as Goliath, Caravaggio identifies himself explicitly with the villain and the loser, not with the heroic victor David. It is both an admission of guilt and a supplication for forgiveness. David shows Goliath compassion. And there is also the inscription in the blade of the sword: H-AS OS, which in most studies on Caravaggio is read as 'humilitas occidit superbiam'. Humility kills pride.

In painterly terms, 'David with the head of Goliath' is considered the most intimate painting that Caravaggio ever made. Quickly painted, with thin layers of paint, but oh so sharp and precise. In terms of construction and scenography, it is perhaps the simplest work in his entire oeuvre – we see only the upper body of David and the facial expressions of David and Goliath emerging from the dark, the darkest possible black that surrounds them – yet it creates such a strong impact. Theatricality that does not stand in the way of emotion, virtuosity that does not diminish emotionality, horror that does not distract from beauty. And also: David who is not portrayed as an apathetic killer but almost as a co-victim. A murderer who expresses remorse. Just like Caravaggio.

There are Caravaggio experts who discern in David's features a young version of the painter. This would make this painting a double self-portrait.

Peter Robb, the biographer who goes the furthest in relating Caravaggio's work to his life, sees it differently. According to him, the 'David with the head of Goliath' contains a few obvious homoerotic references. The suggestive position of the sword that glides towards David's groin. The half-naked torso of David, a beautiful boy's torso with a transparent white shirt draped on one side. And above all: the true identity of David. Through comparisons with previous paintings in which this figure is depicted, Robb has become convinced that this David is none other than Francesco Boneri, nicknamed Cecco del Caravaggio. Cecco was the boy who modelled for the most daring paintings made during Caravaggio's heyday in Rome, including the only two full frontal nudes in his oeuvre: Amor Victorious (1601) and John the Baptist (1602). Cecco was already mentioned by Caravaggio's first biographers as 'Caravaggio's boy', 'who slept with him.'  If this interpretation is correct, then Caravaggio's gift to Scipione Borghese might, aside from being a humble bow, be a last, subtle provocation. Simply because he could not resist.