David with the Head of Goliath
c. 1450/1455
Painter, Florentine, before 1419 - 1457
This gruesome scene is from the Old Testament story of David defeating the giant Goliath. David is shown swinging the slingshot that brought down Goliath, whose severed head lies on the ground. Castagno uses David’s intense expression, fluttering clothing, and wind-blown hair to create a sense of drama.
David was a political symbol for the artist’s home city of Florence, which often had to fend off larger, more powerful enemies. This is a rare example of a ceremonial parade shield that features a narrative scene by an acclaimed artist. Under the paint, we can see five bolts that once attached the shield to its carrying straps.
West Building Main Floor, Gallery 4
Artwork overview
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Medium
tempera on leather on wood
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Credit Line
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Dimensions
overall (width at top): 115.5 x 76.5 cm (45 1/2 x 30 1/8 in.)
overall (width at bottom): 115.5 x 40.6 cm (45 1/2 x 16 in.) -
Accession
1942.9.8
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Purchased, probably in Italy, in 1852 (for 6 Pounds, 13 shillings)[1] by William Drury-Lowe [1802-1877], Locko Park, Derbyshire;[2] by inheritance to his son, William Drury Nathaniel Drury-Lowe [d. 1906], Locko Park; by inheritance to his son, William Drury Drury-Lowe [d. 1916], Locko Park;[3] Captain Hanbury, by November 1912; purchased by (Thomas Agnew & Sons, Ltd., London); (Arthur J. Sulley & Co., London);[4] sold 13 January 1913 to Peter A.B. Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania;[5] inheritance from Estate of Peter A.B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; gift 1942 to NGA.
[1] See Richard Calvocoressi, "Locko Park. An Important Family Collection," Connoisseur 192 (June 1976): 141.
[2] See W.D.N. Drury-Lowe's preface in Jean Paul Richter, Catalogue of Pictures at Locko Park, London, 1901, as well as John Cornforth, "Locko Park, Derbyshire - II," Country Life (12 June 1969): 1506-1507, where a stay of William Drury-Lowe in Italy in 1852-1853 is mentioned. See also Dictionary of Art, ed. Jane Turner, 34 vols., London, 1996: G:306.
[3] See the introduction by George Hughes-Hartman in Nottingham University Art Gallery. Pictures from Locko Park, Derbyshire. Illustrated Catalogue, Notthingham, 1968: n.p.
[4] As explained by G. Hughes-Hartman (in a letter of 12 February 1991, in NGA curatorial files) to Rolf Bagemihl, "Captain Hanbury [probably]...was an impecunious gentleman rather than a dealer, acting as an intermediary." According to a copy of a letter of 2 November 1920 from Thomas Agnew & Sons concerning the sale of Locko Park pictures (this also supplied by Mr. Hughes-Hartman), the shield now in the NGA "was bought by us from Captain Hanbury in November 1912 for 2,000 Pounds and delivered to Messrs. Sulley in the same month." The letter adds that, "as is usually the case when we purchase pictures from private individuals," copies were made free of charge also of the paintings coming from Locko Park. The copy of the shield is still there today.
[5] Widener collection records and letters from Sulley to Bernard Berenson (copies in NGA curatorial files). A letter of 15 January 1913 informs Berenson that the shield has been acquired by P.A.B. Widener. See also David Alan Brown, "Berenson's Contribution to Scholarship, Taste, and Collecting," in Berenson and the Connoisseurship of Italian Painting, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1979: 21.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1857
Art Treasures of the United Kingdom: Paintings by Ancient Masters, Art Treasures Palace, Manchester, 1957, no. 55, as by Pollajuolo.
1979
Berenson and the Connoisseurship of Italian Painting, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1979, no. 36, repro.
2004
Verrocchio's David Restored: A Renaissance Bronze from the National Museum of the Bargello, Florence, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2004, fig. 13 (p. 43), not shown at two earlier venues in Florence and Atlanta.
Bibliography
199
Olszewski, Edward. "Prophecy and Prolepsis in Donatello's Marble David." Artibus et Historiae 18, 36 (1998): 73-76, fig. 15, 78 n. 45.
1913
Cagnola, Guido. “Il ‘Davide’ di Andrea del Castagno.” Rassegna d’Arte 13 (1913): 49, repro.
1916
Berenson, Bernard, and William Roberts. Pictures in the Collection of P.A.B. Widener at Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania: Early Italian and Spanish Schools. Philadelphia, 1916: unpaginated, repro.
1923
Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1923: unpaginated, repro.
1931
Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1931: 128, repro.
1935
Tietze, Hans. Meisterwerke europäischer Malerei in Amerika. Vienna, 1935: 48, repro. (English ed., Masterpieces of European Painting in America. New York, 1939: 48, repro.).
1942
Works of Art from the Widener Collection. Foreword by David Finley and John Walker. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 5.
1943
Richter, George M. Andrea del Castago. Chicago, 1943: 12, 16, 17, repro.
1944
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. Masterpieces of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1944: 34, color repro.
1945
Fiocco, Giuseppe. La pittura toscana del Quattrocento. Novara, 1945: xxii.
1948
Paintings and Sculpture from the Widener Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1948 (reprinted 1959): 3, repro.
1949
L. J. Roggeveen. "De National Gallery of Art te Washington." Phoenix 4, no. 12 (December 1949): 335-336, repro. 332.
1951
Einstein, Lewis. Looking at Italian Pictures in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1951: 42-44, repro.
1956
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1956: 18, repro.
1957
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): pl. 17.
1959
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Early Italian Painting in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1959 (Booklet Number Three in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 42, color repro. on cover.
1960
The National Gallery of Art and Its Collections. Foreword by Perry B. Cott and notes by Otto Stelzer. National Gallery of Art, Washington (undated, 1960s): 6.
Newton, Eric. The Arts of Man. Greenwich, Connecticut, 1960: 106-107, repro.
1963
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 80, repro.
Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Florentine School. 2 vols. London, 1963: 1:47.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 24.
1966
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 1:40, color repro.
1967
Bellosi, Luciano. "Intorno ad Andrea del Castagno." Paragone 18, no. 211 (1967): 5, 8, 9, 16 n. 5, fig. 2.
1968
National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 17, repro.
Gandolfo, Giampaolo et al. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Great Museums of the World. New York, 1968: 11.
1972
Wittkower, Rudolf. "Desiderio da Settignano's St. Jerome in the Desert." Studies in the History of Art 4 (1971-1972): 6-37, repro.
Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, MA, 1972: 7, 645.
1973
Finley, David Edward. A Standard of Excellence: Andrew W. Mellon Founds the National Gallery of Art at Washington. Washington, 1973: 62.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 58, repro.
1976
Calvocoressi, Richard. "Locko Park. An Important Family Collection." The Connoisseur 192 (June 1976): 141.
1978
King, Marian. Adventures in Art: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1978: 18, pl. 1.
1979
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:129-130; 2:pl. 89.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 92, no. 54, color repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 77, repro.
1992
National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 17, repro.
1993
Adams, Laurie Schneider. Art and Psychoanalysis. New York, 1993: 54-55, fig. 10.
Gagliardi, Jacques. La conquête de la peinture: L’Europe des ateliers du XIIIe au XVe siècle. Paris, 1993: 378, fig. 442.
2002
Pfisterer, Ulrich. Donatello und die Entdeckung der Stile 1430-1445. Munich, 2002: 398-399, fig. 133.
Quodbach, Esmée. "The Last of the American Versailles: The Widener Collection at Lynnewood Hall." Simiolus 29, no. 1/2 (2002): 73, 81, 95, fig. 32.
2003
Boskovits, Miklós, David Alan Brown, et al. Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century. The Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 2003: 3-7, color repro.
2004
Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 16-17, no. 9, color repro.
2008
Lucco, Mauro, and Giovanni Carlo Federico Villa, eds. Giovanni Bellini. Exh. cat. Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome, 2008: 92.
Tosti, Barbara, ed. Mugello culla del Rinascimento: Giotto, Beato Angelico, Donatello e i Medici. Exh. cat. Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, Florence, 2008: 94.
2009
Mack, Rosamund E. "When Armor Was Art: Exploring Images of Armor in the National Gallery of Art Collections." Washington, 1990: color repro.
2010
Bober, Phyllis Pray and Ruther Rubinstein. Renaissance Artists & Antique Sculpture: A Handbook of Sources. 2nd ed. London, 2010: 31, 39, 45 nt. 12, 151, 477, fig. 6.
Bredekamp, Horst. Theorie des Bildakts. Frankfurter-Adorno-Vorlesungen, 2007. Berlin, 2010: 298-299, fig. 191. New edition, Berlin, 2015: 292-293, fig. 187.
2011
Pergam, Elizabeth A. The Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition of 1857: Entrepreneurs, Connoisseurs and the Public. Farnham and Burlington, 2011: 221, fig. 5.3, 224, 312.
2012
Dunlop, Anne. "Parading David." Art History 35, no. 4 (September 2012): 683-688, 692-693, 696, 698, 699, 701; color fig. 1, 2, cover; fig. 3, 4.
2015
Dunlop, Anne. Andrea del Castagno and the Limits of Painting. Turnhout, 2015: 18, 47-52, 60-61, 63, 65, 67-68, 89, 133, 147 n. 83, 147 n. 2, 147 n.3, figs. 15-18.
2021
Ekserdjian, David. "The northern Renaissance response to the Antique before the Sack of Rome." Colnaghi Studies Journal 8 (March 2021): 19-20.
Wikidata ID
Q3703387