Valerio Castello (Genoa 1624-1659), David’s Triumph

The painting, a masterpiece of the artist’s maturity, represents the biblical story, from the First Book of Samuel, whereby the young shepherd David, after killing the terrible Goliath with a simple sling, triumphantly enters Jerusalem carrying the giant’s severed head atop a sword. Castello sets up an extraordinary Baroque theatrical scene, based on the biblical text (“When the men were returning home after David had killed the Philistine, the women came out from all the towns of Israel to meet King Saul with singing and dancing, with joyful songs and with tambourines and lutes. As they danced, they sang: “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands”), all built on the diagonal lines of the great chariot and the figures of the procession, which converge in the center directing the viewer’s gaze …

Click HERE for a full description in the Catalogue Four centuries of painting, pg. 20-21