by Tom Gurney
Tom Gurney BSc (Hons) is an art history expert with over 20 years experience
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Email: tomgurney1@gmail.com / Phone: +44 7429 011000
David with the Head of Goliath by Caravaggio: The Borghese Painting
In the Galleria Borghese's David with the Head of Goliath, a young victor holds a severed head at arm's length and looks at it without celebration. The museum catalogues this canvas as Caravaggio, inventory 455, and gives two possible date ranges: 1606–07 or 1609–10. Goliath's face is widely read as the artist's own, but the meaning of that likeness and the painting's purpose remain open to debate.[1]
Caravaggio painted other versions of David's victory. The Prado picture shows a younger David bending over the fallen giant; the Vienna painting thrusts the head toward the viewer. This page concerns the Borghese canvas in Rome. Its size, pose and collection documents should not be exchanged with those of the other two works.[1][2][3]
Caravaggio in context
The Cardsharps
c.1595Calling of Saint Matthew
1599–1600Supper at Emmaus
1601At a Glance
- ArtistMichelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio[1]
- TitleDavid with the Head of Goliath[1]
- Date1606–07 or 1609–10 in the Galleria Borghese catalogue; the later Naples period is favoured by many scholars, while the owner keeps the question open[1]
- Mediumoil on canvas[1]
- Dimensions125 × 101 cm, height × width[1]
- CollectionGalleria Borghese, Rome, inventory 455[1]
- Documented by1613 in Cardinal Scipione Borghese's collection[1]
- Distinguishing featureDavid holds Goliath's head outward and looks at it with a grave expression[1]
Contents
- A Victory without Triumph
- David's Gesture and Goliath's Face
- The Writing on the Sword
- When Was It Painted?
- Why Was It Made?
- The 1613 Borghese Record
- Three Paintings of David
- Frequently Asked Questions
Look closer: David with the Head of Goliath
David’s quiet face and the severed head carry very different expressions. The sword and suspended head turn the victory into a troubling exchange.
123Details from David with the Head of Goliath
Select a detail image to open the full-size gallery, then use the arrows to compare views.
David’s lowered gaze
David looks down rather than outward, his pale face and bare shoulder emerging from the surrounding dark.
Goliath’s head
David holds the hair above Goliath’s open mouth. Light catches the brow and cheeks of the severed head.
The sword and grip
The blade runs diagonally from David’s left hand across the lower corner, opposing the raised arm that holds the head.
A Victory without Triumph
The biblical David defeats the giant Goliath with a sling, then takes his sword and cuts off his head. A painter could make that story into a jubilant celebration of courage. Caravaggio instead gives the Borghese David a subdued response. The youth holds the head away from his body, and his gaze seems troubled. Dark space limits distractions so the relationship between living victor and dead opponent becomes the subject.[1][4]
The action is over. There is no visible sling strike and no crowd cheering for Israel. The severed head hangs heavily, and David's extended arm makes its weight seem palpable. His other hand holds the sword. Light picks out bare skin, fabric and steel; it does not make the violence disappear. The painting holds viewers between the fact of victory and the cost that the young figure appears to feel.
The Galleria Borghese calls attention to David's sadness and to the suggestion that Goliath's face is Caravaggio's own. That reading has a long history in the collection. Iacomo Manilli, writing in 1650, reported that the painter portrayed himself in the giant's face. The owner catalogue also records a tradition of identifying David as “his Caravaggino,” but the name has been attached to several proposed people and should not become an unqualified sitter identification.[1]
The self-portrait reading matters because it invites a second story within the biblical scene: an artist confronting his own severed image. It does not establish a complete psychological diary. We can describe the visible likeness and the historical testimony while leaving room for different accounts of what the picture meant to its first viewers.
David's Gesture and Goliath's Face
David's outstretched arm is central. It links his body with the head while keeping the two at a distance. The dark background makes that line especially clear. Goliath's mouth hangs open; his features are set in the shock of death. David does not look toward the audience for applause. He looks at what he has done.[1]
The museum's catalogue suggests that the scene may correspond to the moment after the fight when David shows the head to Saul's camp, as narrated in 1 Samuel. That is a plausible way to explain the presenting gesture. Yet the painting's emotional force does not require viewers to identify a precise second in the written story. The blade, head and youth already tell us that the contest has ended.[1][4]
The head's face has often been treated as the artist's self-portrait. That claim rests on historical reception and visual interpretation rather than an inscription saying “Caravaggio.” It should be distinguished from the firmer object facts: the picture's current collection, dimensions and early Borghese documentation. The difference between evidence levels matters especially because the painting has attracted rich accounts of guilt, punishment and forgiveness.[1]
For comparison, the Vienna David also extends a head toward the audience, but the pose, support and date debate differ. The Prado David bends over the fallen body. Seeing all three prevents a description of one gesture from being mistakenly assigned to another painting.[2][3]
The Writing on the Sword
Letters on the Borghese sword have prompted one of the work's most discussed interpretations. The Galleria Borghese transcribes an abbreviation usually read as “H.AS O S.” Some scholars expand it to the Augustinian phrase “humility kills pride.” Taken with a youthful David and a giant's head, that reading can make the blade part of a moral meditation.[1]
The owner catalogue also records alternatives. Earlier writers saw a form of artist's signature in the marks or considered them a sword-maker's brand. The letters are visible evidence, but their expansion is not settled by sight alone. The motto is an influential interpretation, not words indisputably written out in full on the canvas.[1]
That uncertainty does not make the detail unimportant. A small inscription can affect how a viewer reads the whole scene, especially when the giant has been identified with the painter. If the letters refer to humility overcoming pride, David's sorrow may seem to carry a moral weight. If they are a brand, the blade functions differently. The honest account allows the inscription to open the question rather than prematurely close it.
When Was It Painted?
The Borghese object record prints two date ranges, 1606–07 and 1609–10. It explains why scholars have placed the work at different points after Caravaggio fled Rome in 1606. Stylistic comparisons with paintings from his second Naples period have persuaded many scholars of a later date. The catalogue writer nonetheless keeps the earlier possibility open, partly because diagnostic examination found incisions and a preparatory phase comparable with works of 1606–07.[1]
This disagreement affects the biography attached to the painting. A late 1609–10 date would place it near the artist's final attempt to return to Rome. An earlier 1606–07 date would situate it at the start of exile. Neither option turns the image into a dated confession. The documentation shows that the painting was in the Borghese circle by 1613; it does not write its year of completion across the canvas.[1]
The web address for this page has no date suffix. That is useful here. The related site route ending “1610” is staged as an alias to this Borghese page, but even that inherited date should not replace the owner's double dating. A redirect can consolidate duplicate URLs while the article itself preserves the scholarly question.
Why Was It Made?
One influential theory holds that Caravaggio sent the painting to Cardinal Scipione Borghese as a gift connected to a hoped-for papal pardon. Scipione was Pope Paul V's nephew and a powerful collector. In that context, a David with the painter's own severed face could be read as a plea or self-judgment. The Galleria Borghese calls such a gift plausible, not proven.[1]
The theory depends partly on chronology and partly on interpretation of the picture. It should not be turned into a documented letter saying Caravaggio painted this canvas to obtain forgiveness. The owner catalogue records an old account that Scipione commissioned the work, alongside later scholars' different proposed dates and motives. Those possibilities are worth explaining because they show why the painting has become so closely tied to the artist's final years.[1]
The painting can also be considered as a dramatic biblical image for a collector. Its controlled light and intense faces would make it powerful without a hidden pardon message. The roles of patronage, subject choice and personal meaning are not mutually exclusive, but the surviving evidence does not tell us exactly how Caravaggio balanced them.
The 1613 Borghese Record
The firm early anchor is the canvas's presence in Cardinal Scipione Borghese's collection by 1613. The museum describes a payment for a frame for a “David with the head of Goliath,” with dimensions broadly corresponding to this picture. Scipione Francucci also saw the painting at the Casino di Porta Pinciana that year. Later inventories and descriptions continue the collection trail.[1]
The 1650 Manilli description is particularly important for the self-portrait tradition. It is early testimony, although made decades after the painting was created. Written records and the surviving object together make a stronger identity case than any modern image caption. The work later entered the Italian state's holdings in 1902, according to the owner record.[1]
Knowing this history also limits what can be claimed. A secure presence in 1613 does not prove precisely when Caravaggio painted it or why Scipione acquired it. A plausible journey from Naples to Rome is still a reconstruction. The catalogue discusses documentary hints about paintings transported in 1610 but keeps the circumstances open.[1]
Three Paintings of David
Caravaggio returned to the David and Goliath subject in distinct compositions. The Prado's young David stoops over the giant; its museum dates the work about 1600. The Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna presents David holding the head outward with a sword on his shoulder, and its exhibition record dates that panel about 1600–01. The Borghese canvas has a melancholy older youth contemplating a head commonly read as his maker's face, and a contested later date.[1][2][3]
The paintings do not form three frames of a film. Their formats, supports, collections and likely occasions differ. The three-route comparison lets readers study recurring choices: how close the head comes to us, whether David looks at it, and what emotion follows the victory. That is more useful than assigning all three the same date or treating one as a mere preliminary for another.
The themes of violence and response also connect with Caravaggio's Judith Beheading Holofernes, but the narrative actors and meanings are different. Each object should retain its own owner-led facts and evidence limits.[5]
Explore the Caravaggio collection
| Name | Date | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Adoration of the Shepherds by Caravaggio: The Messina Nativity | 1608–09; precise order relative to Resurrection of Lazarus remains unresolved | Artwork |
| Amor Victorious by Caravaggio | 1601–02 in the Berlin owner record | Artwork |
| Bacchus by Caravaggio: The Uffizi Painting | about 1598, according to the Uffizi | Artwork |
| Basket of Fruit by Caravaggio | after 1597, probably around the turn of the seventeenth century, according to the Ambrosiana | Artwork |
| Boy Bitten by a Lizard: Caravaggio's London Painting | about 1594–95 in the National Gallery's current catalogue; URL suffix “1596” is inherited | Artwork |
| Boy Bitten by a Lizard: The Florence Version Attributed to Caravaggio | disputed; Longhi's catalogue record preserves historical 1592–93 and other proposed ranges, including c.1597 | Artwork |
| Boy Peeling Fruit by Caravaggio: The Royal Collection Painting | about 1592–93 in the owner's current exhibition record | Artwork |
| Boy Peeling Fruit in Florence: A Derivation from Caravaggio | — | Artwork |
| Boy with a Basket of Fruit by Caravaggio | about 1595 in the Galleria Borghese catalogue | Artwork |
| Caravaggio Paintings in Rome: Churches, Museums and a Practical Route | — | Guide |
| Caravaggio Quotes: What the Documents Actually Record | — | Guide |
| Caravaggio's Lute Player: The Del Monte Painting Once Shown at the Met | about 1596–97 in the Met catalogue | Artwork |
| Caravaggio's Painting Technique: Grounds, Incisions, Revisions and Light | — | Guide |
| Christ at the Column by Caravaggio: The Rouen Flagellation | c.1606 in the owner caption; owner prose gives 1606–07 | Artwork |
| Christ on the Mount of Olives by Caravaggio: The Lost Berlin Painting | — | Artwork |
| Conversion on the Way to Damascus by Caravaggio | about 1601 in the Roma Capitale church record | Artwork |
| Crowning with Thorns by Caravaggio: The Vienna Painting | about 1603 in the 2019 KHM record; “1607” is an inherited URL suffix | Artwork |
| Crowning with Thorns in Prato: Attributed to Caravaggio | about 1602–03 in the collection presentation | Artwork |
| David with the Head of Goliath by Caravaggio: The Borghese Painting | 1606–07 or 1609–10 in the Galleria Borghese catalogue; the later Naples period is favoured by many scholars, while the owner keeps the question open | Artwork |
| David with the Head of Goliath by Caravaggio: The Prado Painting | about 1600 in Prado material; “1599” survives only in the legacy URL | Artwork |
| David with the Head of Goliath by Caravaggio: The Vienna Painting | about 1600–01 in the KHM's 2019 exhibition record; “1607” is a legacy route label | Artwork |
| Did Caravaggio Make Drawings? What Survives and What Paintings Reveal | — | Guide |
| Ecce Homo: Caravaggio's Madrid Rediscovery and the Genoa Painting | — | Artwork |
| John the Baptist in Caravaggio's Paintings: A Guide to the Different Versions | — | Artwork |
| Judith Beheading Holofernes by Caravaggio | beginning of the seventeenth century in the owning museum's account; about 1599–1600 in the Kimbell's 2025 loan label; around 1602 in one specialist catalogue | Artwork |
| Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto: Caravaggio's Ludovisi Ceiling | about 1597; the archive connects the work with Cardinal del Monte's 1597 commission | Artwork |
| Madonna and Child with Saint Anne by Caravaggio: The Palafrenieri Altarpiece | 1605 in the Galleria Borghese object field; completed and delivered by 8 April 1606 | Artwork |
| Madonna of Loreto by Caravaggio: The Pilgrims at Sant'Agostino | broadly c.1604–06; institutional records differ slightly in their starting year | Artwork |
| Madonna of the Rosary by Caravaggio: The Vienna Altarpiece | around 1603 in the Kunsthistorisches Museum's object record | Artwork |
| Martha and Mary Magdalene by Caravaggio: The Detroit Painting | about 1598 in the Detroit Institute of Arts record | Artwork |
| Medusa by Caravaggio: The Uffizi Painted Shield | 1596–98 in the Uffizi's virtual exhibition; specialist research reports the shield delivered to the Medici wardrobe by 7 September 1598 | Artwork |
| Narcissus, Attributed to Caravaggio | dependent on attribution; the Zeri catalogue gives a broad 1610–50 range under Spadarino | Artwork |
| Nativity with Saint Francis and Saint Lawrence: Caravaggio's Missing Painting | somewhere in 1600–09 in the parliamentary report; a specific 1609 execution and place remain debated | Artwork |
| Penitent Mary Magdalene by Caravaggio | 1597 in the owner's catalogue, during Caravaggio's early Roman activity | Artwork |
| Portrait of a Courtesan: Caravaggio's Lost Berlin Portrait | Berlin's data field says c.1590, while its own text compares a Caravaggio work of c.1598; precise date unresolved | Artwork |
| Portrait of Alof de Wignacourt and His Page by Caravaggio | — | Artwork |
| Portrait of Fra Antonio Martelli? Caravaggio's Pitti Knight of Malta | 1608 in the Restituzioni object heading; within Caravaggio's Malta period | Artwork |
| Portrait of Maffeo Barberini: The Seated Corsini Painting | c.1596–97 in the national catalogue | Artwork |
| Portrait of Monsignor Maffeo Barberini: Caravaggio's Newly Acquired Painting | around the late 1590s / age thirty; “1598” in the inherited address is approximate, not an exact document date | Artwork |
| Portrait of Pope Paul V: A Caravaggio Attribution and a Borghese Copy | — | Artwork |
| Prints After Caravaggio: Who Made Them and What They Show | — | Guide |
| Reclining Saint John the Baptist: A Disputed Caravaggio Attribution | often proposed for the artist's final years; the later museum list does not give a precise year. | Artwork |
| Rest on the Flight into Egypt by Caravaggio | about 1597 in the owner's catalogue | Artwork |
| Saint Catherine of Alexandria by Caravaggio: The Thyssen Painting | about 1598–99 in the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza catalogue | Artwork |
| Saint Francis in Meditation by Caravaggio: The Cremona Painting | 1603–06 in the owner account; c.1605–06 in a KHM exhibition caption | Artwork |
| Saint Francis in Prayer: Caravaggio's Carpineto Painting | 1606 in a 2016–17 exhibition work list | Artwork |
| Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy by Caravaggio | c.1595–96 in the owner wall text | Artwork |
| Saint Jerome in Meditation: Caravaggio's Montserrat Painting | 1605 in the owner record; an owner publication reports scholarship placing it about 1605–06 | Artwork |
| Saint Jerome Writing by Caravaggio: The Borghese Painting | c.1606 in the owner catalogue; the “1605” URL suffix is inherited | Artwork |
| Saint Jerome Writing by Caravaggio: The Malta Painting | around 1607–08; foundation dates Malaspina's commission to 1608 | Artwork |
| Saint John in the Wilderness at Toledo Cathedral | exact 1598 not established by the cited cathedral account. | Artwork |
| Saint John the Baptist at Galleria Corsini, Rome | about 1606 in the national record; older proposals ranged from the late 1590s onward. | Artwork |
| Saint John the Baptist at the Capitoline Museums, Rome | 1602. | Artwork |
| Saint John the Baptist at the Galleria Borghese | 1609–10 in the current Borghese record. | Artwork |
| Saint John the Baptist at the Spring: The Bonello Painting in Malta | early seventeenth century in the institutional account; a precise 1608 is not established there. | Artwork |
| Saint Matthew and the Angel: Caravaggio's Lost First Altarpiece | — | Artwork |
| Salome Receives the Head of John the Baptist: Caravaggio's London Painting | about 1609–10, likely late Naples period in the Gallery's account | Artwork |
| Salome with the Head of John the Baptist: Caravaggio's Madrid Painting | — | Artwork |
| Sleeping Cupid by Caravaggio: The Painting Made in Malta | about 1608, Malta period | Artwork |
| Still Life with Fruit on a Stone Ledge: Is It by Caravaggio? | — | Artwork |
| Supper at Emmaus (1606): Caravaggio's Brera Painting | — | Artwork |
| The Annunciation by Caravaggio in Nancy | c.1607–10 in the collection record; 1608–10 in the museum's restoration account | Artwork |
| The Basel Saint John the Baptist: Once Labelled Caravaggio, Now Maíno | about 1608–10 in that schedule, rather than the legacy URL's 1600. | Artwork |
| The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist by Caravaggio | about 1608; installed in the Oratory on 29 August 1608 | Artwork |
| The Burial of Saint Lucy by Caravaggio in Syracuse | 1608, during Caravaggio's Syracuse stay | Artwork |
| The Calling of Saint Matthew by Caravaggio | about 1599–1600 | Artwork |
| The Calling of Saints Peter and Andrew by Caravaggio | about 1602–04 in the Trust's object text | Artwork |
| The Cardsharps by Caravaggio | about 1596–97 in the Kimbell's current object record | Artwork |
| The Conversion of Saint Paul: Caravaggio's Odescalchi Panel | commissioned in 1600; painted around 1600–01 | Artwork |
| The Crucifixion of Saint Andrew by Caravaggio | 1606–07 | Artwork |
| The Crucifixion of Saint Peter by Caravaggio | about 1601 | Artwork |
| The Death of the Virgin by Caravaggio | commissioned 1601; completed late 1605 or early 1606, according to the Louvre | Artwork |
| The Denial of Saint Peter by Caravaggio | 1610 | Artwork |
| The Doria Pamphilj Saint John the Baptist: A Second Youth with a Ram | linked compositionally to the Capitoline 1602 picture; an exact production year for this canvas is not established by the owner pages used here. | Artwork |
| The Entombment of Christ by Caravaggio: The Vatican Deposition | about 1600–04 in Vatican Museums publication material | Artwork |
| The Flagellation of Christ by Caravaggio: The Capodimonte Altarpiece | around 1607, in the first Naples period | Artwork |
| The Fortune Teller by Caravaggio: The Louvre Version and Its Roman Counterpart | — | Artwork |
| The Holy Family with the Infant Saint John the Baptist by Caravaggio | early 1600s in the Met catalogue; no more exact owner date asserted here | Artwork |
| The Incredulity of Saint Thomas by Caravaggio | about 1601 in the SPSG presentation | Artwork |
| The Inspiration of Saint Matthew by Caravaggio | usually 1602; also catalogued 1602–03, for the installed final altarpiece | Artwork |
| The Lute Player by Caravaggio: The Hermitage Painting | about 1596 in the Hermitage collection publication; the Hermitage Friends restoration page gives about 1595–96 | Artwork |
| The Magdalen in Ecstasy: Caravaggio, Copies and a Disputed Original | — | Artwork |
| The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew by Caravaggio | 1599–1600; unveiled with The Calling in 1600 | Artwork |
| The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula by Caravaggio | — | Artwork |
| The Musicians by Caravaggio | 1597 | Artwork |
| The Resurrection of Lazarus by Caravaggio in Messina | 1609; delivered 10 June 1609 in the owner account | Artwork |
| The Sacrifice of Isaac by Bartolomeo Cavarozzi: A Former Caravaggio Attribution | about 1615–17 in the Nicholas Hall catalogue; “1598” is an inherited URL label, not the accepted date | Artwork |
| The Sacrifice of Isaac by Caravaggio: The Uffizi Painting | about 1603 in the Uffizi catalogue | Artwork |
| The Seven Works of Mercy by Caravaggio | 1606–07, according to the Pio Monte | Artwork |
| The Supper at Emmaus by Caravaggio: The London Painting | 1601 | Artwork |
| The Taking of Christ by Caravaggio | 1602 | Artwork |
| The Toulouse *Judith Beheading Holofernes*: A Caravaggio Attribution Debate | c.1606–07 if identified with the recorded Naples work; that identification is debated | Artwork |
| Young Sick Bacchus by Caravaggio | about 1595 in the Galleria Borghese catalogue | Artwork |
| Youth with a Ram: Why Caravaggio's Saint John Looks So Unusual | — | Artwork |
No matching pages found.
Discussion
Share a close observation about David with the Head of Goliath by Caravaggio or a source that clarifies its history.
Which detail changes your reading?
Is there a collection record or document worth comparing?
What remains uncertain?
Join the Conversation
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is this David with the Head of Goliath?
It belongs to the Galleria Borghese in Rome, inventory 455. The museum lists it as oil on canvas, 125 × 101 cm. Check current display information before visiting.[1]
Is Goliath a self-portrait of Caravaggio?
The museum describes the head as the artist's self-portrait and records a 1650 account saying so. The interpretation has strong historical roots; it does not explain every possible meaning of the painting.[1]
Was the picture painted in 1610 to secure a pardon?
That is a plausible theory, not a documented certainty. The owner gives 1606–07 or 1609–10 and discusses several readings of the picture's purpose.[1]
What do the sword letters mean?
An influential reading expands them as “humility kills pride.” The Borghese catalogue also reports alternative readings, including a signature or sword brand.[1]
References
- Galleria Borghese, David with the Head of Goliath, inventory 455, catalogue by Antonio Iommelli, January 2023.
- Museo Nacional del Prado, David with the Head of Goliath, Prado collection record.
- Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Horror & the Terrifying, Caravaggio's David with the Head of Goliath, 2019 exhibition record.
- Vatican, 1 Samuel 17, David and Goliath.
- Gallerie Nazionali di Arte Antica, Caravaggio's Judith Beheading Holofernes.
- Annotated image source: Wikimedia Commons, File:David holding the head of Goliath by Caravaggio (Rome).jpg, high-resolution reproduction used for the annotated details.
