Caravaggio, David 1606-07. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
Todd Bolen points to the contradictory passage in 1 Samuel 17:53-54 – Where Did Goliath’s Head Go?
“And the people of Israel came back from chasing the Philistines, and they plundered their camp. And David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put his armor in his tent.”
The fight between David and Goliath was when David was a teen. The triumphant entry to Jerusalem was years later when David became a King. Perhaps he just kept and carried the head around. Even more confusing is the reference to Goliath’s armor that was “put in his tent” separately from the head? The Transcriber was getting really tired when he wrote that one.
Caravaggio, Boy with a Basket of Fruit (self portrait), c. 1593. Galleria Borghese, Rome
By the way on the subject of Caravaggio and his paining. Caravaggio was a notorious brawler and he eventually murdered a man during a fight in Rome. His patrons could no longer protect him and he fled to Naples. Later someone attacked Caravaggio in Milano and disfigured his face. All along Caravaggio was begging for a pardon asking for permission to return to Rome and he died from a fever on his way there. In any case the gory biblical scenes are a common subject in Caravaggio paintings (like the Sacrifice of Issac I published here). In the painting above Caravaggio was offering his own head as that of the slaughtered Goliath. I find it interesting that the young David there resembles some of the self portraits Caravaggio painted when he was young. So perhaps this painting is Caravaggio the slaughterer and Caravaggio being slaughtered (they do look alike). Uncle Freud missed that one…
Back to some real heads, skulls and bones. My friend Joel points to the recent acquisition by the famous collector Shlomo Moussaieff of the Babylonian skull with an Aramaic inscription uncovered in Iraq. Biblical Archeology Review writes:
“…more than two thousand magic incantation bowls that have survived from third–seventh-century C.E. Jewish communities in Babylonia. The incantation bowls were made at the same time and in the very communities that produced the most intricate, complex and revered accomplishment of rabbinic Judaism, the Babylonian Talmud. Although some have deemed the incantation literature to be inconsistent with the spirit of the Talmud, recent research has shown it to be, rather, complementary and representative of aspects of life reflected within the Talmud.”
Caravaggios published with permission from the Web Gallery of Art
Further Reading:
David Levine Inflection
Raphael’s Head of a Muse is the Most Expensive Drawing Ever
The Population of Rome
