David Triumphant

Thomas Crawford

National Gallery of Art

A smooth-skinned boy, David, looks down at a severed head lying at his feet in this free-standing white marble sculpture. David’s body and head are angled slightly to our right in this photograph, and we look directly onto the large face of the severed head, which belonged to Goliath. David’s head is bowed, and he wears a ring of flowers over shoulder-length curls. His right hand, to our left, rests on that hip, and his other elbow is propped on a chest-high, bronze harp. Cloth drapes over David’s far shoulder, though his chest is otherwise bare. The fabric twists around the waist and falls to his knees. High boots are laced up over the ankles. One foot rests squarely on the temple of Goliath’s severed head. Goliath’s heavy brows are deeply furrowed over closed, deep-set eyes. His cheeks are lined, his mouth downturned in a bushy, curly beard. A slingshot lies on the base next to Goliath’s head. They are on a thin, disk-like base atop a thicker square base, all carved from marble. The artist inscribed the front face of the lower base to read, “T. CRAWFORD. FECIT. ROME. 1848.”