Thomas Flatman after Domenico Fetti. David with the head of Goliath. Painted 1667

Painting depicting David sitting on the decapitated head of Goliath and resting his right arm on his sword. In the left background is a military encampment. The head of David in harsh, elongated hatches of sanguine and brown, blended with a little blue-green shadow, on a pale carnation ground; head of Goliath densely modelled with hatches of brown , grey and white over a greenish-brown carnation ground; hair and fur washed and hatched in transparent browns with opaque heightening; the costume, landscape and sky washed and hatched in gouache; on vellum put down on a leaf from a table- book.

Frame: Ebonised wood, provided for the miniature after it entered the Museum; an older oak backboard has survived, inscribed in graphite: David with the Head of Goliath/ a fine Drawing by T.Flatman/ from/ a Painting by Domechino [ sic] / at Hampton Court Pallace.

Biblical scene of a young man resting on the head of a giant, leaning on a sword with his right arm.

Provenance: Purchased from Colnaghi's, 1937; earlier provenance unknown.

This painting was copied after an original by Domenico Fetti (about 1588–1623). Charles I (ruled 1625–49) probably acquired the original with the collection of Cardinal Ferdinando Gonzaga, later Duke of Mantua. Although the Gonzaga inventory of 1627 did not list it as by Fetti, he has always been known to be the artist. The painting was sold from the Royal Collection in 1652, after Charles I was executed. It was recovered at the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 and hung in the Long Matted Gallery at Whitehall. It was presumably there that Flatman made his copy.

This miniature is catalogue number 127 in John Murdoch’s Seventeenth-century English Miniatures in the Collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum (1997).

P.83-1937