David with the Head of Goliath
Ipollito Scarsella, Lo Scarsellino (Ferrara c.1550 - Ferrara 1620)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1600 - 1629
Materials
Oil on panel (softwood)
Measurements
571 x 419 mm (22 1/2 x 16 1/2 in)
Place of origin
Ferrara
Order this imageCollection
Stourhead, Wiltshire
NT 732115
Caption
David, accompanied by two soldiers, is triumphantly holding the head of Goliath with the dead giant’s massive sword swung his shoulder.Goliath was a Philistine hero who, according to the biblical story in I Samuel 17 was nine feet tall. He challenged the Israelites saying that their best warrior should fight him and if he won, the Israelites would be his slaves, but if he lost, the Philistines would be enslaved. Goliath issued his challenge for forty days but no one was brave enough to meet him in single combat until the young shepherd, David, came forward without armour or sword. He killed Goliath using a stone and a sling and cut off his head with Goliath’s own sword. The biblical subject, popular after the Council of Trent, was a symbol of true Faith over Heresy.
Summary
Oil painting on softwood panel, David with the Head of Goliath by Ipollito Scarsella, Lo Scarsellino (Ferrara c.1550 - Ferrara 1620). David is seen, half-length, facing left but with his head turned towards the helmeted soldiers behind him on the right. He has Goliath's large sword over his right shoulder and in his left hand he is carrying the giant's head which takes up most of the bottom central foreground. The picture depicts the triumph of David which is related in the biblical book of I Samuel 18: 6 -7.
Provenance
Acquired by Henry II Hoare (1705-85) as 'Mola' and thence by descent; in house by 1747; given to the National Trust along with the house, its grounds, and the rest of contents by Sir Henry Hugh Arthur Hoare, 6th Bt (1865 – 1947) in 1946.
Credit line
Stourhead, The Hoare Collection (National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
Verso: On the reverse is an unidentifiable (because flattened) seal, of a coat-of-arms under a ducal (?) coronet and lion/leopard rampant supporters (it is possible that the dexter side is the Austrian Bindeschild).
Makers and roles
Ipollito Scarsella, Lo Scarsellino (Ferrara c.1550 - Ferrara 1620) , artist Italian (Emilian) School, artist previously catalogued as by Pier Francesco Mola (Coldrerio 1612 – Rome 1666), artist previously catalogued as attributed to Giovanni Battista Mola (c.1588 - 1665), artist previously catalogued as after Giulio Romano (Rome c.1499 - Mantua 1546), artist previously catalogued as attributed to Annibale Carracci (Bologna 1560 - Rome 1609), artist
References
Walpole 1927-28 Paget Toynbee (ed.), 'Horace Walpole's Journals of Visits to Country Seats, etc.', 1760-62, Walpole Society XVI, 1927 -28 pp. 9-80, p.42 Stourhead 1838: Inventory of Heir-Looms at Stourhead directed to be taken by the Will of the late Sir Richard Colt Hoare Bart. with the state and condition thereof, 1838 , no.338 Waagen 1854-7: Gustav Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, 3 vols. (translated by Lady Eastlake) with a supplementary volume: Galleries and Cabinets of Art in Great Britain, London, 1854-7, Vol.III, p. 172 Novell 1964 Maria Angela Novelli, Lo Scarsellino, 1964 (2nd/3rd editions 2008/9), no. 159