Dated circa 1665-1669, this depiction of David with the Head of Goliath by Herrera the Younger was recently included in the Prado Museum's 2023 exhibition of the Sevillian artist's works. One of the most unique and innovative artists of the Spanish Baroque, Herrera the Younger achieved considerable fame during his lifet.mes , though reputation suffered over the centuries due to the destruction and disappearance of much of his oeuvre. An architect, painter, printmaker, and stage designer, Herrera demonstrated exceptional versatility throughout his career. After periods in Rome and Seville, the artist returned to Madrid in 1660 or 1661, where he painted the present work and established a career at court through the support of important patrons, eventually leading to his appointment by King Charles II to Maestro Mayor de Obras Reales (Senior Master of Royal Works) in 1677.

Possibly an oil sketch executed for an unknown larger composition, the present canvas illustrates the biblical passage narrated by the prophet Samuel that describes the confrontation between David and the Philistine Goliath (1 Samuel 17:50-51). Already victorious, the young hero holds his trophy–the decapitated head of Goliath–in one hand and balances his sword on his shoulder with the other. Advancing with a confident stride, David leaves behind the conquered giant’s headless corpse, rendered in the background at left with dry, allusive brushstrokes. Here Herrera demonstrates his powers of invention, approaching the canvas with rough and free brushwork that generates movement with expressive force. Especially characteristic of the artist’s pictorial style is the resolution of David’s face, loosely modeled and smoothly applied, recalling his similar treatment of the Santa Teresa de Jesús from the same period in the Prado Museum, Madrid (inv. no. P005144).

A brilliant colorist, Herrera enhances his sandy, earthen palette with vivid blue pigments applied to the hero’s skirt, sandals, and cap, crowned with bristly strokes of white plumage. The artist's rich sense of color is complimented by loose brushwork, ridges of impasto, and passages of drier pigment that together produce spectacular textural variety. Especially potent at upper right, the dynamic, atmospheric quality of the sky is rendered through the layered application of thin green and blue glazes, a technique also observed in Herrera’s canvas of circa 1665, An Artillery General (Diego de Quiroga Fajardo?), in the Prado Museum, Madrid (inv. no. P001127).

As noted by Benito Navarrette Prieto in the Prado exhibition catalogue, this exuberant oil sketch may correspond to a canvas listed in Alonso García de Oñate's inventory of 1670, described as: “Quatro pinturas pequeñas con marcos negros de mano de don Francisco de Herrera que son Dabid, San Juan, Santa Margarita y Santa Lucía tasadas todas en mill trecientos y beinte reales.” García de Oñate was a frequent collaborator of the sculptor and master architect Sebastián de Benavente, one of Herrera’s close friends and professional colleagues in Madrid.