{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O17196"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O17196/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2017KD2849/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2017KD2849/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2017KD2849","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KD2851","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KD2857","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KD2850","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KD2852","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KD2853","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KD2854","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KD2856","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KD2859","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KD2860","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KD2861","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KD2862","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KD2863","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KD2864","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KD2865","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KD2866","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KD2867","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KD2868","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KD2873","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KD2874","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KD2875","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KD2965","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2018KY8805","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O17196/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O17196","accessionNumber":"7402-1860","objectType":"Statuette","titles":[{"title":"David","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"The youthful David rests his leg on the head of the giant Goliath. This terracotta statuette recalls the biblical episode (Samuel 1:17) in which David defeats the giant Goliath with a slingshot and stones collected from a nearby stream. The triumphant David then took Goliath’s sword and severed his head. Here, the details are carefully chosen to illustrate the story: stones near Goliath’s head and in David’s proper left hand, the sword held by David (the blade has broken off), and the stream running from the top left to the bottom right of the base.\n\r\nTrapped air bubbles visible in an x-radiograph  indicate the clay was pressed into a mould. Some areas of the figure are more defined than others, notably David’s breastplate, hair, and helmet. \n\r\nThe more defined areas may have been modelled with tools after the clay was taken out of the mould. Stamps were used to create the patterning along the edge of the tunic and the classically inspired breastplate. \n\r\nThe back was roughly modelled by hand with minimal detailing, suggesting the statuette was intended for a shelf or niche where the back was not visible .\n\r\nTraces of gesso (a white priming layer often made from gypsum and a binding medium) and paint across the statuette, most notably the green (possibly copper resinate) along the base, indicate it was fully polychromed. There are traces of blue (azurite) and gold on the sleeves and red (vermillion) on the skirt hem. Most sculptures during this period were entirely painted but were often stripped of the polychromy at a later date. \n\r\nDavid took on political symbolism in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Florence, representing the strength and liberty of the city. Several large-scale David statues stood in public spaces. Notable examples include Donatello’s bronze <i>David</i> (ca. 1435-40), made for the Medici Palace and later moved to the Palazzo Vecchio; Andrea del Verrocchio’s bronze <i>David</i> (ca. 1475), probably initially owned by the Medici, but purchased in 1476 by the city government and relocated to the Palazzo Vecchio; and Michelangelo’s marble <i>David</i> (1501-4), placed in the Piazza della Signoria (See Bormand 2009 and Butterfield 1995). Plaster casts of all three statues are on display in the V&amp;A’s Cast Courts.\n\r\nSmaller statuettes like this example intentionally evoked the large-scale David sculptures visible throughout the city. Their small size suggests that these were likely intended to be displayed instead in the domestic sphere (Bormand 2009).\n\r\nMultiple surviving models of this composition, such as V&A 7602-1861, indicate that such statuettes were popular among wealthy and middle-class Florentine families. Multiple copies could be easily produced using moulds and then could be customised. \n\r\nThis figure of David and the head of Goliath are more detailed and refined than those in 7602-1861, indicating this statuette is of higher quality and potentially pointing to different hands in the workshop. Furthermore, multiple variants of 7602-1861 are known, while this composition seems unique. Its detailing and style may indicate it was customised by the workshop for a particular client. \n\nLast updated 31/07/2025","physicalDescription":"Terracotta statuette depicting David resting his left foot on the head of Goliath. A stone lies in front of Goliath, while David holds another stone in his left hand. David wears a crown.\r\n\r\nThe base resembles a rocky landscape with a small stream running from the middle proper right side across the foreground and has traces of green polychromy. \n\r\nDavid wears an elaborately decorated plate of armour over a tunic with detailed trim. \n\r\nDavid’s nose was broken off and reglued. The blade of the sword in David’s proper right hand has also broken. David’s head broke off at an unknown date and was reattached with a dowel. ","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Master of the David and St John Statuettes","id":"A2519"},"association":{"text":"Sculptor","id":"x43862"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"terracotta","id":"AAT10669"}],"techniques":[{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},{"text":"moulding","id":"AAT53134"},{"text":"stamped","id":"AAT239001"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Terracotta, made from moulded clay, stamped and painted","categories":[{"text":"Sculpture","id":"THES48896"},{"text":"Religion","id":"THES48900"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"SCP","id":"THES48600"},"images":["2017KD2849","2017KD2851","2017KD2857","2017KD2850","2017KD2852","2017KD2853","2017KD2854","2017KD2856","2017KD2859","2017KD2860","2017KD2861","2017KD2862","2017KD2863","2017KD2864","2017KD2865","2017KD2866","2017KD2867","2017KD2868","2017KD2873","2017KD2874","2017KD2875","2017KD2965","2018KY8805"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"111 (VA)","id":"THES49918"},"free":"","case":"CA005","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Statuette","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Florence","id":"x28848"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1500-25","earliest":"1495-01-01","latest":"1525-12-31"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"42.9","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Purchased in Florence from an unrecorded vendor for £4 (Pope-Hennessy, p. 192)","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Terracotta statuette, 'David', attributed to the Master of the David and St John Stauettes, ca. 1500-25, Florence. ","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Bormand, Marc. ‘Da David a san Girolamo: identità civica e devozione religiosa nella piccola statuaria robbiana.’ In <i>I Della Robbia: Il dialogo tra le Arti nel Rinascimento</i>, edited by Giancarlo Gentilini and Liletta Fornasari, pp. 119-27. Milan: Skira, 2009. See pp. 119-20 for discussion on the development of David statuettes based on large scale David statues in Florence. "},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Butterfield, Andrew. ‘New Evidence for the Iconography of David in Quattrocento Florence.’ <i>I Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance</i> 6 (1995): pp. 115–33. See especially pp. 115-6. "},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Paoletti, John T. ‘The Bargello David and Public Sculpture in Fifteenth-century Florence.’ <i>Collaboration in Italian Renaissance Art</i>, edited by Wendy Steelman Sheard and John T. Paoletti. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1978. See p. 107, note 6."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Arnoldi, Franceso Negri. ‘Scultura Italiana al Victoria and Albert Museum I & II.’ In <i>Commentari</i> XX (June-July 1970). See pp. 212-3."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"‘Inventory of Art Objects Acquired in the Year 1860.’ In<i> Inventory of the Objects in the Art Division of the Museum at South Kensington, Arranged According to the Dates of their Acquisition</i>, volume I. London: Printed by George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode, 1868. See p. 42."},{"reference":{"text":"Pope-Hennessy, John. <i>Catalogue of Italian Sculpture in the Victoria and Albert Museum</i>, 3 vols, London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1964.","id":"AUTH332986"},"details":"","free":"See vol. I, p. 192."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Maclagan, Eric and Margaret H. Longhurst. <i>Catalogue of Italian Sculpture</i>. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1932. See p. 64."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Von Fabriczy, Cornelius. ‘Kritisches Verzeichnis Toskanischer Holz- Und Tonstatuen Bis Zum Beginn Des Cinquecento.’ In <i>Jahrbuch Der Königlich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen</i> 30 (1909): 1–88. See p. 44. "},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Robinson, John Charles. <i>Italian Sculpture of the Middle Ages and Period of the Revival of Art. A Descriptive Catalogue of the Works forming the above Section of the Museum, with additional Illustrative Notices</i>. London: Chapman and Hall, 1862. See pp. 103-4."}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"David","id":"N582"},{"text":"Goliath","id":"N963"}],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"armour","id":"AAT36745"},{"text":"crowns (headdresses)","id":"AAT46020"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["7402-1860"],"accessionNumberNum":"7402","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1860,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2019LU5948"],"recordModificationDate":"2026-10-09","recordCreationDate":"1999-12-15","availableToBook":false}}