David and Goliath (Volterra)

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Recto David and Goliath by Daniele da Volterra (Louvre INV 566) recto 02.jpg
Recto
Verso David and Goliath by Daniele da Volterra (Louvre INV 566) verso 02.jpg
Verso

David and Goliath or David Killing Goliath is a double-sided c.1555 oil on slate painting by Daniele da Volterra, now in the Louvre. Both sides show the same scene.

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History

A commission from Giovanni Della Casa, it uses a composition in a drawing by Michelangelo, Volterra's teacher, friend and protector. It shows Volterra engaging with the contemporary debate on whether painting or sculpture was the superior art form - being double-sided allowed the work to compete with sculpture. He produced a clay maquette for the work and chose a very large and very flat piece of slate. It broke during the painting and was repaired with two barely-visible tenons

The work's painter was long lost. After its commissioner it belonged to Annibal Rucellai, then Monsignor Montalto and then Monsignor Giudice before being offered to Louis XIV on 31 July 1715 as a Michelangelo. It was restored at the Louvre after rain damaged thanks to a broken glass ceiling at the château de Fontainebleau during a storm.

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