Caravaggio's Self-Portrait As Both David And Goliath

September 3, 2009

Some highlights:

1)  The painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio lived from 1571 to 1610.

Caravaggio on Wikipedia

2)  He did at least 7 major paintings involving beheadings:

“Judith Beheading Holofernes” – c. 1598
“David and Goliath” – c. 1599
“David with the Head of Goliath” – 1607
“Salome with the Head of John the Baptist” (London) – 1607
“Beheading of Saint John the Baptist”‘ – 1608
“Salome with the Head of John the Baptist” (Madrid) – 1609
“David with the Head of Goliath” -1610

All the above 7 paintings can be seen here:

Chronology of works by Caravaggio on Wikipedia

3)  On 29 May 1606, Caravaggio killed a young man named Ranuccio Tomassoni in a brawl.

4)  Caravaggio often used himself as a model for his painted portraits of famous mythological, allegorical, and religious figures.

5)  In the last year of his life, Caravaggio painted himself as David . . . and Goliath.

Here are some of Caravaggio’s self-portraits in his paintings: 

As a “Boy Peeling A Fruit”:

(Click on the images if you wish to view them individually or larger.)

As a “Young Sick Bacchus” (a youthful god of wine):

As “Bacchus”:

As a “Boy Bitten By A Lizard”:

As a “Boy With A Basket Of Fruit”:

As a “Fortune Teller” ‘s mark:

As the mark about to be conned in “The Cardsharps”:

As “Medusa”:

As “John The Baptist”:

As “John The Baptist”:

As “John The Baptist”:

As “John The Baptist”:

As “John The Baptist”:

As a “Lute Player”:

As one of four very similar looking young musicians in “Musicians”:

As a pleased cupid in “Amor Victorious”:

As an angel to “St Francis in Ecstasy”:

 

As a young man with his back to the painter, in the center of the painting, as Christ calls the tax collector Matthew to be his disciple in “The Calling of St. Matthew”.  While Christ is calling Matthew, Caravaggio is not looking at Christ or the action.  Rather, Caravaggio is looking out at the light off to the right:

As Isaac about to be sacrificed by his father in “Sacrifice of Isaac”:

As “Narcissus“:

As a man in the back center doing nothing but watching during the “Martyrdom of St. Matthew”:

Detail:

As David leaning down to reveal Goliath’s severed head in “David and Goliath” (1599):

As David holding forward Goliath’s head in “David with the Head of Goliath” (1607):

And finally, in the last year of Caravaggio’s life.  After living for three years with the knowledge he killed a man, Caravaggio makes a pivotal artistic change.  In his two previous paintings of David and Goliath, Goliath is likely modeled after someone else (more so in 1599 than in the post-homicide 1607 version).  In Caravaggio’s final depiction of David & Goliath in 1610, David lifts up the “monster” Goliath’s severed head – revealing the monster to clearly be himself.

Caravaggio paints himself as both David and Goliath.  The source of the innocence, courage, and aspirations of youth reveals the head of his older, ”fallen” self.

It’s probably foolish to attempt to imply all that Caravaggio intended.  The painting has often been believed to have been a valuable gift he crafted to help gain a pardon from the Church of Rome for his homicide, as payment or gratuity.  Most art historians emphasize that in this final version, Caravaggio painted himself as Goliath.  Fewer may highlight that he also painted himself as David.

I believe Caravaggio was attempting to visually communicate that we all have the potential to be a defining source of good or evil.  We each can be both without exclusively being either.

To use a late 20th Century metaphor, Caravaggio tapped into the universal theme re-visited in the Star Wars saga – when Luke Skywalker on the planet Dagobah enters down into the cave of the knowledge of good and evil, beheads Darth Vader, unmasks Darth Vader, and discovers the face behind the mask is his own.

Caravaggio’s painting can be interpreted as much as a self-aware admission of guilt as it can be interpreted as an attempt toward absolution.  It should probably be considered as both.

The starting point, the basis, and the canvas from which Caravaggio paints is black.  From darkness, human actions and colors are revealed.  Rarely do we see Caravaggio paint someone in the light of day.  He is more focused on what happens in the night or in the covers of darkness. 

What does this have to do with sexuality and love in the arts?

It would be easy to look at the above paintings and to hypothesize that Caravaggio was likely either effeminate or homosexual, and many art historians have done that.  But that is not the point I wish to emphasize.

The therapeutic point I wish to emphasize is that in working out our pasts, our “guilts,” and our perceptions of self, it may be more honest and helpful to see ourselves as both David and Goliath to varying degrees, intermittently or simultaneously.  And that admission may help us understand ourselves and others’ perceptions of us better.  It may be better to not only paint ourselves exclusively as hero or villain, sinner or martyr;  but rather as both.

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