# David with the Head of Goliath

**Andrea del Castagno** (Florentine, before 1419–1457)  
c. 1450/1455  
tempera on leather on wood  
overall (width at top): 115.5 x 76.5 cm (45 1/2 x 30 1/8 in.) overall (width at bottom): 115.5 x 40.6 cm (45 1/2 x 16 in.)

Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942.9.8. [The museum's record](https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.1145.html).

## About this work

Andrea del Castagno painted this in about 1450/1455, aged about 31. It is now at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

### What you’re looking at

This shield-shaped painting shows a young man with pale, peachy skin and curling brown hair standing astride the severed head of a man with dark hair and tanned skin. The painting is wider at the top and tapers like a pint glass to a narrower base. The young man, David, holds the end of long red slingshot with his right hand. The slingshot is weighted by a rock and swings behind his body. His sleeveless rust-red garment is cinched at his waist over a long white shirt. Both garments skim David’s thighs and his legs and feet are bare. Long, curling brown hair frames the ashen and bloodied upturned face of the head at David’s feet. A palm-sized stone is embedded in that forehead. The landscape background is made up of gray boulders, a meandering river, and low palm-like trees. Frothy white clouds sweep across an azure-blue sky.

_Description from the National Gallery of Art._

### How it was made

- **Tempera.** Pigment bound with egg yolk. It dries in minutes and can’t be blended wet, so painters built up form with fine, hatched strokes. It was Europe’s main panel technique before oil.

### [Andrea del Castagno](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/andrea-del-castagno)

Florentine, before 1419–1457

## Facts

- Type: Painting
- The artist was about 31
- Real size: about 45 × 30 in (116 × 77 cm). The original is larger than our largest print, 20 × 30 in, so every print is a reduction.
- Century: 15th century
- Subjects: Old Testament, David
- Colour: brown
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/1325.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/1325/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68; 20 × 30 in $86
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164; 20 × 30 in $208
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98; 18 × 24 in $118
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3; 20 × 30 in $5

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/david-with-the-head-of-goliath-nga-1145).