The Sources of the Young David by Andrea del Castagno

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The Sources of the Young David by Andrea del Castagno Author(s): Dalia Haitovsky Source: Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, 29. Bd., H. 1 (1985), pp. 174-

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Dalia Haitovsky: THE SOURCES OF THE YOUNG DAVID BY ANDREA DEL CASTAGNO

The picture by Andrea del Castagno called Young David, in the National Gallery, Washington (Fig. i), raises many questions.1 The shape is unusual; it is painted on leather, and the title is rather

non-commital. The work represents a youth pausing in a running attitude. A wind blows through his brown hair

and his garment, a short red cloak over a fluttering white tunic. He is looking to the left as if so

mething were drawing his attention in that direction. His left hand is raised, fingers outstretched, and in his right hand he carries a sling. The right leg is bent, the left stretched back, as if to get a better stance for casting the sling. A severed head is lying between his legs; the face has the pallor of death, blood is congealed on it, and a stone has penetrated the forehead. All this takes place outdoors, in a rocky landscape with palm trees in the middle ground, and a vast skyline with sty lized clouds above.

David's action seems to be self-contradictory.2 If he is running and aiming the sling, why is the severed head of Goliath lying in the foreground ? On the other hand, if the figure of David is sym bolic, why does he run ? We will try to answer these questions in searching for the sources that

may have influenced the painter. Depictions of the story of David killing Goliath are found already in early Christian art, as for

instance, in the reliefs on the Brescia Lipsanotheca (Fig. 2) of the 4th century A.D.3 On the left side of the cover, second row from the top, we see David, sling in hand, aiming a stone at Goliath who is seen stumbling away or collapsing. David wears a short tunic, and the direction of his movement

is similar to that of Andrea del Castagno's David. An even closer resemblance exists as regards the David and Goliath on a silver plate, centerpiece

of a 7th century set of nine plates with the story of David, found in Cyprus and now in the Metro

politan Museum, New York (Fig. 3). The design on the plate represents three moments in the story of David and Goliath. The upper

register shows the exchange of insults before the battle, the middle scene, with larger scale figures de

picts the combat, and in the lowest register David is seen cutting off the dead Goliath's head. The

David of the middle scene is a curly-headed youth dressed in a short tunic, his feet spread wide; the sling in his right hand is ready for action and his left hand, wrapped in his cloak, is raised to

ward off a possible blow from the advancing Goliath. Contrary to the biblical story, Goliath is not much taller than David; he wears classical armour, advances spear in hand and is protected by an

elaborate shield. The silver plates, although dating from the period of Heraclius, are generally con

sidered to be a revival of the classical style of the 4th and 5th centuries A.D.4 To the same tradition also belongs an illustrated page from a 10th century Psalter written for Ba

silius II, now in the Marcian Library, Venice, cod. Gr. 17 (Fig. 4). This is the second full page illus

tration in the manuscript; the first one shows a portrait of the emperor himself surrounded by prostrate foes. David, as in the case of the Heraclian plate, is a hero the ruler identified with. This Psalter

is one of the so-called "

aristocratic "

Psalters, with an antiquarian, basically Hellenistic, figurative style.5 One of the six scenes represents the combat (Fig. 5). A giant Goliath is standing fully ar

med on the right, while a young, small David, his short curly head in a halo (as on the Brescia box) measures up to him, sling in hand, ready for the final throw. His legs are spread, the right bent at

the knee for better leverage. He is wearing a short tunic that flutters in the wind. The position of

the legs, the evaluating look, the windblown tunic and the fact that the scene is set in a hilly land

scape, all recall Castagno's David. These examples have two things in common, they are stylistically dependent on Greco-Roman art

and they are narrative in intention. The fight between David and Goliath is shown either a minute

before or during the action itself.

During the Renaissance attitudes to the subject underwent a change and it received symbolic treat

ment by which the battle scene was compressed into a single figure ? the static, victorious David.6

The best known example is David by Donatello in the Bargello (Fig. 6). The young David standing on Goliath's severed head, is naked except for hat and boots. Donatello gave David some of the

attributes of the victorious athlete of antiquity, such as nudity and physical beauty, and turned him

into a static symbolic figure.7 Most Renaissance depictions of David are of this static kind. They show a victor rather than tell the story of the victory. Of the same type are the two other Davids

by Donatello (Bargello, Florence, and National Gallery, Washington), the David of Verrocchio (Bar

gello, Florence) and in painting, the David by Pollaiuolo (Staatliche Museen, Berlin-Dahlem). When Castagno was faced with the question of what kind of David to paint he rejected the static

Donatello type. There are perhaps several reasons for this. Perhaps he held that the medium of paint

ing lends itself to the rendering of action and narrative to a greater extent than sculpture. Perhaps his choice reflected his own artistic interests, which were in the Florentine tradition of depicting the

human figure in action. When Castagno's contemporary, the humanist Christoforo Landino, comment

ed on the artists of his time, he commended Andrea del Castagno as being "

grande disegnatore et di



D. H ait ov sky / The Young David by Andrea del Castagno 175

f:l|pi

1 Castagno, Young David. Washington, National Gallery.



176 D. Haitovsky / The Young David by Andrea del Castagno

2 Lipsanotheca. Brescia, Museo Civico dell'et? cristiana medioevale.

gran rilievo, amatore della difficult? dell'arte et di scorci, vivo et prompte molto; et assai facile nel

fare... ".8 Baxandall gives the David as an example of the qualities of "

vivo and propto ", that is, the quality of showing a figure in diversified movements. The

" disegno

" in the David, that is, the

representation of the figure by outline, is impressive. The modelling is minimized, rather in the manner

of painters like Pisanello, whose connection with the David we will try to establish later.9

Another consideration altogether may have prevailed. The David is painted on a ceremonial leather

shield, hence its curious shape, which follows the heraldic shields of the period.10 Castagno needed a

new type of hero who would immediately catch the eye and therefore he relied on the active, nar

rative tradition rather than the static symbolic one. The most likely place for him to have seen an

active David was Venice, where he began his career, in the years 1442-45, and where he was strongly influenced by the revival of classical learning centered around the universities of Northern Italy. Classi

cal remains were recorded in sketch books by artists such as Pisanello, Gentile da Fabriano and Jacopo Bellini.11 In one of these sketch books he could have seen a classical prototype for the figure of Da

vid, perhaps the figure on the left in the sculptured group known at that time as the "

Horse Ta

mers "

or "

Dioscuri "

(Fig. 7). The site, Monte Cavallo in Rome, near Constantine's Thermae, was

called after the sculpture. The group is so big that it was probably impossible to move, and remained in the same place since antiquity.12 Looking at the Horse-Tamer on the left, his stance, the anatomical

elaboration of his legs, his arms and biceps, we see a striking resemblance to Castagno's David. The

position of the head and especially the elaboration of the neck muscles and sinews also resemble our

painting. There are differences; the Horse-Tamer is naked and the David is clothed; the propor tions of the figures are different and the Horse-Tamer's left foot rests firmly on the ground while David's

left foot is on tip-toe. David's clothes are comprehensible. Donatello's naked bronze was the novelty, while his other Davids

(Bargello and National Gallery, Washington) are clad. The fact that Castagno painted the Young David on a shield meant to be carried in processions may also account for the clothes, since a naked figure

might have offended to the patron or the public. The difference in proportions reflects the artistic taste of the period. Florentine preference in the last

quarter of the 15th century was for the lean, wiry, energetic type of figure and Castagno's David was

ahead of his times in this respect.13 Another possible explanation may be that Castagno knew the an

tique monument through one of the many extant copies. That closest to his David is on a sheet by



D. Haitovsky / The Young David by Andrea del Castagno 177

3 7th century, Silver Plate, found in Cyprus. New York,

Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Pisanello or his school (Ambrosiana f. 214 inf. 10V.) showing the Dioscurus in proportions closer to

Castagno's (Fig. 8). Pisanello's copy of the antique figure is fairly accurate, but the changes in the

anatomy of the figure, especially the legs show his ignorance of anatomy.14 Castagno had a much better

knowledge of anatomy, and acted on it. Another drawing, approximately of the same kind, is not an exact copy but wras made under the

influence of the Dioscurus by Fra Ang?lico and represents a Nude Youth Holding a Rearing Horse

(British Mu:eum, Cat. 1950, no. 152, Fig. 9). This seems to be an adaptation of the classical theme created by posing a live model in the attitude of the ancient statue. The idiosyncracies of this

living nude were copied, including his bow legs and the wart on his right foot. The rearing horse is also included.15 The group was well known and influential throughout the Renaissance and Castagno

might have seen copies of it either in Venice or on returning to Florence, through his connection with Domenico Veneziano who studied with Pisanello and Gentile da Fabriano.16

However, Castagno may have been influenced directly by the antique sculpture. Since this David is dated stylistically to the last years of Castagno's life (1450-57) and as modern scholars hold that

Castagno was in Rome in 1454, working on decorations in the Bibliotheca Greca in the Vatican, he could have seen the antique group itself.17

Another source of influence on Castagno may perhaps be found in the depictions of the David nar rative found in Byzantine art, as exemplified in the silver plate from Cyprus (Fig. 3) and the sheet from the Psalter of Basilius II, Cod. Gr. 17, Fig. 4), which belongs to the same continuing classical tradi tion. In Venice Castagno could have seen works similar to these and in the case of the silver plate, it is doubtful whether he wrould have recognized it as belonging to a period later than the classical. His

David's stance has something of both these early monuments. Further, the battle scene is set in a

landscape schematically painted in a "

primitive "

and archaic fashion, much more so than the style adopted for the human figure. The rocky hills seen in bird's eye view, the palm trees in the middle distance and the stylized clouds have already been commented upon.18 The landscape in Castagno's

David, as in the Psalter combat scene and indeed in the whole Italo-Byzantine tradition, is only se

condary, a drop background arranged to emphasize the action of the figure. David and Goliath in the Psalter are placed in front of a huge mountain, emphasizing David's littleness

? and Goliath's size. Goliath is in fact as tall as the mountain. In Castagno's David, the two rocks meet in the valley over Goliath's head, the vegetation is wild and dishevelled, like David's hair, and the sky is an enor




4 ioth century, Psalter. Venice, Biblioteca di S. Marco, cod. Gr. 17.

5 Detail from Fig. 4: David and Goliath.




6 Donatello, Bronze David. Florence, Museo Nazionale del

Bargello.

mous area against which the figure is silhouetted. Castagno's David, like the figures in the 7th and

nth centuries works, and indeed in earlier classical examples, all move on the same plane and do not

walk inside the landscape but parallel to it. In this David Castagno developed a new iconographie type, which Janson calls the

" defiant and

victorious "

hero.19 This desired quality of defiance prompted Castagno to look for a pose to convey it. The hero further defies his unseen enemy by his facial expression, the slightly open mouth and the

raised arm and open palm of the left hand.

Looking at David's sensitive face (Fig. 10), we observe his long, curly, windblown hair, standing up stiffly on the crown of his head, like a lion's mane. The ruffled head of hair exemplifies several

of David's characteristics. It is the sign of a poet in the classical tradition 20, but also according to phy sionomie ideas it is a sign of a hero, a brave man, a man whose heart is that of a lion. The

" leo

nine "

type also had a threatening look in his eyes, a "

cloudy "

forehead and a long, thin, neck.21 David

is clearly a leonine type, in that he tends to fury; not only was literature concerning physiognomies

popular in the 15th century, but Castagno had already used the science of physiognomies in his paint

ings of Uomini Famosi (now in the Uffizi, Florence), especially in the soldier type Pippo Spagno.22 David is also known to have killed a lion to protect his sheep, before his encounter with Goliath. The

terribilit? in his face associates him with the later David of Michelangelo, both of whom display the

traits of Ira. Both are influenced by Donatello's St. George (Museo del Bargello, Florence).23 From Do

natello Castagno also took the severed head of Goliath with the frozen, realistic, painful grimace. The

head of Goliath, pale in death with streams of coagulated blood, surrounded by a flat platter-like rock formation, reminds one of the head of John the Baptist presented to Herod on a salver.24

To sum up, the Young David by Castagno is an extraordinary work, aspiring to represent all the

various aspects of the hero in one concentrated image. David epitomizes the defiant and conquering

figure by his stance, look and open palm gesture proclaiming his victory in the manner of the classical

orator. The head of Goliath under his feet is his identifying emblem.25

However, this unique David by Castagno had no direct influence on later depictions of the subject.

Michelangelo's defiant David is static, before the meditated action, and the baroque David by Bernini

(Borghese Gallery, Rome) is in the midst of action. Both are narrative, and are symbolic only in the

sense that we know^ the outcome. The immediate impact of Castagno's David wras stylistic rather than

iconographie. The figure of the running acolyte in Desiderio da Settignano's St. Jerome In the Desert

(National Gallery, Washington) was modelled on it.26 A more direct though less specific influence, show




7 Dioscurus. Rome, Quirinal.

. - ,-* . . ^ J*. _:__:_. ;; "^ i

8 Pisanello (School of), Dioscurus. Milan, Ambrosiana, f. 214 inf. 10 V.

9 Fra Ang?lico, Dioscurus. London, British Museum, Inv. Nr. Pp. 1-18.




10 Detail from Fig. i.

ing a figure in action delineated against a landscape is found in Antonio Pollaiuolo's Hercules and The

Hydra (Uffizi, Florence, Fig. n). Vasari tells us that Piero Pollaiuolo was Andrea's pupil, but both brothers were familiar with his work.27 Although much more realistic both in figure and landscape, Pollaiuolo maintains the one-plane composition in Hercules' action and the legs are a mirror image of David's, even to the detail of the right foot touching the ground only lightly. The David by An drea del Castagno thus becomes a link in the representation of the human figure in action ? the

primary concern of Florentine painting in the Renaissance and Baroque periods.28

NOTES

1 The Young David, leather shield, 114 x 81 cm. lower width 43 cm. National Gallery of Art, Wash

ington, D.C., Widener Collection, No. 604. The best and most recent bibliography is in M. Horsier, Andrea del Castagno, Oxford 1980, p. 178. 2 The question is raised by Horsier (n. 1), p. 28.

3 Left end of Lipsanotheca, Museo Civico, Brescia. On the meaning of the Lipsanotheca see A. Grabar, Christian Iconography, Princeton 1980, p. 138. 4 E. Kitzinger, Byzantine Art in the Making, London 1975, pp. 110-111.

5 D. Talbot-Rice, Byzantine Art, Norwich 1968, pp. 340-341. 6 On the iconography of David in the Renaissance, see Janson, Donatello, II, pp. 6-7. 7 M. Barasch, King David in Art, mimeographed lectures, Jerusalem 1967, p. 69. 8

Christoforo Landino, Fiorentini excellenti in pictura et sculptura, in: Commento di Chrisioforo Landino

florentino sopra la Comedia di Dante Alighieri (Florence 1481) p. VIII r. As quoted by M. Baxan

dall, Painting and Experience in Fifteenth Century Italy, Oxford 1983, pp. 118. 9 H. Janson, A History of Art, New York 1964, pp. 328-29. 10 For a similarly shaped shield see the entry

" Emblem and Insignia ", Encyclopedia of World Art,

Vol. II, pp. 348, which shows a shield painted by Taddeo di Bartolo now in the Museum Bardini, Florence. It is interesting to note other similarities between this shield and the David. In both the

figure is standing with one arm raised and pointing, and the proportion between the lower, well

filled, part of the shield and the upper, comparatively empty, against which the figure is silhouetted, is similar.

11 E. Panofsky, Renaissance and Renascences in Western Art, New York 1969, pp. 172-174. 12 On the history of the

" Horse Tamers

" see E. Pog?ny-Bal?s, The Influence of Rome's Antique Mo

numental Sculpture on the Great Masters of the Renaissance, Budapest 1980, pp. 90-91, n. 7, 12. 13

Janson (n. 9), p. 329.




11 A. PolJaiuolo, Hercules and the Hydra. Florence, Uffizi.

14 A point made to me by a physician who heard this paper at a conference on the theme of King David, Jerusalem, April, 1984. 15 On other adaptations of the Horse-Tamers see Panofsky (n. 11), p. 170, n. 1: M. Levey, Early Re

naissance, Harmondsworth 1967, p. 85; Pog?ny-Bal?s (n. 12), pp. 90-92. 16 G. Paccagnini, Pisanello, trans. /. Carroll, London 1973, p. 152. 17 Horsier (n. 1), pp. 41-44. 18 On the discrepancy between landscape and figure style see: Panofsky (n. 11), p. 174; F. Hartt, A

History of Italian Renaissance Art, London 1970, p. 225. 19 Janson (n. 9), p. 328, also idem, Donatello II, pp. 6-7. 20 /. Onians, Art and Thought in the Hellenistic Age, London 1979, pp. 124-135. 21 Aristotle, "Physiognomies" in Minor Works, trans. W. Hett, London 1936, pp. 99; 103; 111-12;

121; 125. P. Metier, Physiognomic Theory in the Renaissance Heroic Portraits, in: M. Meiss et. al. eds., The Renaissance2and Mannerism, Acts of the 20th Congress of the History of Art, Princeton, II, 1963, PP- 53-69. 22 L. Sleptzoff, Men or Supermen, Jerusalem 1978, pp. 24-26. 23 Tolnay, Michelangelo, p. 13. 24 Kindly pointed out to me by Prof. M. Barasch, while discussing this paper with him.

25 On the emblem as a wray to identify the subject of a work of art, see E. H. Gombrich, Tobias and The Angel, in: Symbolic Images. Studies in the Art of Renaissance, London 1972, pp. 28-29.

26 R. Wittkower, Desiderio da Settignano's St. Jerome in the Desert, in : Idea and Image. Studies in the Italian Renaissance. London 1978, p. 144. 27 Vasari-Milanesi II, p. 682; III, p. 286.

28 Hartt (n. 18), p. 225.

Photo Credits:

Soprintendenza Florence: Figs, i, 6, io, n. - KIF: Figs. 2, 9. - Author: Figs. 3-5, 7, 8.



The Sources of the Young David by Andrea del Castagno

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