This powerful composition, remarkable for its dramatic intensity, was once part of the prestigious collection of Francesco I d’Este, Duke of Modena (1610–1658), who acquired the painting directly from Guido Reni himself. It later entered the famed collection of Prince Eugene of Savoy (1663–1736), celebrated general of the Habsburg Empire, defender of Christendom, and architect of Vienna’s Belvedere Palace.

In this version, the head of Goliath is turned to the right, a detail also found in the painting housed in the Louvre (formerly in the Créquy collection and later owned by King Louis XIV), with which it shares significant stylistic affinities.

Following Prince Eugene’s death, his remarkable collection was largely inherited by his nephew, Charles Emmanuel III of Savoy, and installed in the Royal Palace of Turin. During the French conquest of Italy in the late 18th century, the work was transported to France by General Pierre-Antoine Dupont de l’Étang. It then vanished for nearly 230 years, until its recent rediscovery among the General’s descendants.

With this work, painted around 1605–1606, Guido Reni reshuffled the Roman pictorial scene.

At the time, late Mannerism, embodied by the pupils of Girolamo Muziano and the Cavaliere d’Arpino, still held sway. Yet two realist currents were emerging as avant-garde forces: Caravaggio had completed the Contarelli Chapel between 1599 and 1602 and had just finished the two large canvases for the Cesari Chapel at Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome. Meanwhile, the Bolognese painters Annibale and Agostino Carracci had frescoed the vault of the Farnese Gallery, reinventing the iconography of mythological subjects with a luminous, harmonious approach inspired by the great Renaissance masters.

Caravaggio painted the subject of David with the Head of Goliath three times. At the time Guido Reni created his version, Caravaggio was working on the one now housed in the Borghese Gallery, in which he depicts himself in the severed head of Goliath. 

Reni’s David marks a pivotal stage in his stylistic evolution as a leading figure of the Bolognese school. With his delicate features and almost androgynous elegance, the young man, symbolizing the triumph of skill over brute strength, stands in a contemplative posture, far removed from any sense of triumphalism. The contrast between his introspective gaze and the bloodied head of Goliath accentuates the ambiguity of the hero, who seems to oscillate between gentleness and violence.

The influence of Caravaggism is evident in the raw realism of the severed head, the meticulous attention to texture, and the dramatic chiaroscuro that lifts the figure from the dark background. However, Reni sets himself apart from Caravaggio through his pursuit of idealism and harmony. While the Lombard painter embraces dramatic intensity, popular figures, and harsh, direct light, Reni seeks an Apollonian beauty, a balanced composition, and a soft light that gently caresses the forms.

This Bolognese classicism, rooted in the teachings of the Carracci Academy, aspires to ennoble religious and historical subjects through formal restraint and moral elevation. This painting thus exemplifies the rich tension between the two major artistic currents of the Italian Seicento: Caravaggesque naturalism and classical idealism.

This painting resurfaces in the context of recent exhibitions that have redefined the status of autograph replicas and the working methods of Guido Reni’s studio—namely at the Städel Museum in Frankfurt and the Prado Museum in Madrid (2022–2023), followed by the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Orléans in 2024. The classification of the various typologies of Reni’s David iconography is owed to Corentin Dury. Among these, two principal types emerge:

The Créquy typology, in which Goliath’s head is turned outward, is named after Charles III de Créquy, ambassador to Rome for Louis XIV and former owner of the version now held in the Louvre Museum. The composition of our painting is nearly identical to that of the Louvre’s, with only minor differences, subtle variations that reflect the artistic freedom Reni exercised in producing multiple autograph versions. A third painting was, for a time, confused with ours. Sold by Sotheby’s London as an original in 1985, it was ultimately attributed in 2012 to a collaborator of the master, possibly Simone Cantarini. Its provenance had been inaccurately described, and it has no documented history prior to its discovery in a Scottish castle around 1900.

The La Vrillière typology, in which Goliath’s head is turned inward, is named after the collector Louis Phélypeaux de La Vrillière, who assembled the largest collection of Italian paintings in Paris after that of King Louis XIV. His collection included the David version, now recognized as autograph, currently held at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Orléans. This version gave rise to several workshop copies, which are preserved today in Florence (Galleria degli Uffizi), Dresden (Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister), and Osnabrück (Kulturgeschichtliches Museum). 

Auction at Artcurial
Tuesday, 25 November 2025

Exhibitions
From 16 to 20 September 2025
Hôtel Drouot
9 rue Drouot
75009 Paris

Early October 2025 
Adam Williams Fine Art
24 East 80th Street
New York, NY. 10075

From 21 to 24 November 2025 
Artcurial
7 rond-point des Champs-Elysées Marcel-Dassault
75008 Paris

Contact
Léa Pailler
+33 1 42 99 16 50

Expertise
Cabinet Turquin