Marcantonio RaimondiItalian, 1480–1534David Beheading Goliath
May one see it?
Not receiving at present
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Minneapolis, United States
It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the work
Around 1517–19, artists from Raphael’s workshop frescoed the interior of a loggia, a long open-sided passageway, in the Vatican. On the ceiling of the eleventh bay is this scene of David beheading Goliath.
According to the Books of Samuel from the Bible, the young David, future king of Israel, felled the Philistine warrior Goliath using a simple sling and stone. Here David is set to behead Goliath with the fallen giant’s own sword. Viewers in the 1500s would immediately have interpreted David as Christ, Goliath as Satan, and the Israelites as the Church Triumphant.
The engraving differs from the finished fresco in many details. Marcantonio likely based his work on a now-lost drawing by Raphael or a preparatory work by one of his assistants.
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Particulars
- Accession number
- P.10, 936
In the catalog
Sources
- Minneapolis Institute of Art
- Image: Minneapolis Institute of Art — public domain
