David with the Head of Goliath

David with the Head of Goliath; Caravaggio; 1606

         The stylistic context of this work is that it was painted during the Renaissance period in Italy. Italy is home to the Renaissance art movement as well as Caravaggio, the creator of this piece. He specifically painted David with the Head of Goliath in the early stages of Baroque, which is an artistic style that is known for using complex forms, bold ornamentation, and the juxtaposition of different elements to evoke a sense of drama, movement, and tension. In this painting, we can see the drama and tension through the lighting and the colors. David is shown in majority the light; he's the protagonist in the story. The light gives him a positive vibe and makes it seems as though he is radiating. Goliath's head is shown more so towards the shadows; he's the antagonist of the story. He's face has a sickly color to it, adding to the negative vibe the audience gets from him. The white on David's top and the yellow on his bottoms also gives him a positive vibe since we associate them with positive feelings.
 
         The subject of this piece is David, a biblical character known for slaying the giant, Goliath. The concept of the story is that we can overcome obstacles, no matter how large they are, just by having faith. David is suppose to represent what can happen when you have an abundance amount of faith in God and Goliath represents any trials one might go through . In the Bible, David was a shepard and a "man after God's own heart" meaning that he was, at that time, close to perfect in God's eyes. Goliath was a giant and a champion of the Philistines. He challenged the Israelites to bring a man to fight him and whoever lost, their people had to become servants to the victors. David, being devoted to God, stepped up to the challenge and killed Goliath with a stone and a sling. He took Goliath's head as proof of his victory.

         Caravaggio's use of color is significant in this piece because of what they represent. David is wearing a white top and yellow bottoms. White represents purity, light, goodness, and perfection which plays into his character because in David's younger years, he was pure and perfect in the sense that he hadn't committed any sins that Christians know of and being a "man after God's own heart" insinuates that he was an overall good person. Yellow represents honor and loyalty; David was loyal to God despite how everyone else that was around at the time of his battle with Goliath and his honor came from his victory over Goliath. David is in the center of the painting, making him the focus of the piece.

         This artwork conveys the religious values of society during the 1600s just by the simple fact that it is a painting of one of the Christian heroes in the Bible. Not only that, but the hero of this work is put in clothes that shows his honor and purity, the bright lighting that he is giving off, and the position that he is in. This shows the favor that the artist has towards the Christian faith.