Caravaggio's painting "David with the Head of Goliath" is truly an important painting expressing a known fact that every painter paints himself in a clear and defining way. It was week one in our Reading of the Arts class when I first saw this painting. My immediate aesthetic response was that it was a gory biblical painting that depicted the triumph of David over Goliath. Although I was right to a certain extent, I did not realize back in week one what the artist was attempting to portray until doing further research on the painting.
             Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio also known as the Anti-Christ of painting was born in Milan, Italy in 1571. While growing up he trained as a painter, and in his early twenties he moved to Rome, the epic center of art. The time period was the early 17th century where art took on Baroque artistic style that used exaggerated motion and clear interpreted detail to produce tension, emotion, and drama. The popularity of the Baroque style was encouraged by the Roman Catholic Church. The baroque style was a direct response to the Protestant Reformation, that the arts should communicate religious themes in with emotional involvement. Caravaggio, a follower of the Roman Catholic Church, always had a wealth of commissions and patrons because of his many paintings. He lived a very careless, above the law type of lifestyle which he reflects upon in this particular painting. In 1606, Caravaggio was involved in a duel where he killed a master swordsman. Because he could never prove that it was duel for sport, a murder warrant was issued therefore Caravaggio fled Rome. It wasn't until 1610 that Caravaggio painted David with the Head of Goliath ask plea to the Pope begging for his pardon to return to Rome.
             Some believed that this spectacular oil painting on canvas was just another depiction of the religious tale of David and Goliath, but it is so much more. Like I said before, initially I too thought it was ju...