{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O17197"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O17197/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2017KN2482/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2017KN2482/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2017KN2482","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2018KY8807","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O17197/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O17197","accessionNumber":"7602-1861","objectType":"Statuette","titles":[{"title":"David","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"A triumphant David stands in contrapposto with the head of Goliath between his feet. He originally held a sword. The blade, likely made of metal, has broken off, and only the hilt and embedded fragments of the blade remain. David holds a stone in his left hand. He wears a classically inspired breastplate over a tunic. \n\r\nThe statuette recalls the biblical episode (Samuel 1:17) of David, a young boy who defeats the giant Goliath with a slingshot and a stone, then takes Goliath’s sword and severs his head.  \n\r\nTo create the statuette, the artist first pressed the clay into a mould. Some areas of the figure such as breastplate and the edge of the tunic are more defined than others. Defined details were modelled with tools and stamps after the clay was taken out of the mould and had air dried. \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 would not be visible.\n\r\nTraces of gesso (a white priming layer often made from gypsum and a binding medium) and pigment on the surface indicate that this terracotta statue was entirely painted, though it was later stripped. In the Renaissance, sculptures were often entirely polychromed. The gesso would be applied to the entire sculpture to create a smooth surface onto which paint was applied. \n\r\nImagery of the young David was popularized in fifteenth-century Florence, taking on political symbolism.\n\r\nLarge scale David statues were commissioned for public spaces in the city. 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 David statuettes seem to appear after the production of these large-scale sculptures. The size of this and other similar statuettes indicates that they were likely displayed in the domestic sphere (Bormand 2009). They may have been sold on the open market as they would appeal to many Florentine families. \n\r\nThis composition, with slight variations, was reproduced by the workshop of the Master of the David and St John Statuettes. Another example is V&A 7402-1860  . Figures could have been customised with varying details or polychromy. This statuette has less defined details than 7402-1860.\n\r\nLast updated 31/07/2025","physicalDescription":"A terracotta figure of David with the head of Goliath between his feet. The figure and head are placed on a naturalistic base, meant to resemble a rocky terrain. \r\n\r\nA stone is lodged in Goliath’s forehead, and another one is in David’s proper left hand. David holds the hilt of a sword whose blade as broken off. The left arm and wrist were also broken but have been repaired.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Master of the David and St John Statuettes","id":"A2519"},"association":{"text":"Sculptor","id":"AAT25181"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"terracotta","id":"AAT10669"}],"techniques":[{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Terracotta","categories":[{"text":"Sculpture","id":"THES48896"},{"text":"Religion","id":"THES48900"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"SCP","id":"THES48600"},"images":["2017KN2482","2018KY8807"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"001","id":"THES396119"},"free":"","case":"","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":"48.3","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Purchased from the Gigli-Campana Collection for £20. \r\n\r\nIn the collection of the sculptor Emilio Santarelli before Gigli-Campana.","historicalContext":"The statuette was made in a Florentine workshop that produced several figures of David with the head of Goliath, with slight compositional variations. They were produced at a time when the imagery of David defeating Goliath was related to the Florentine republic and therefore was closely tied to the political and social climate of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Florence. \r\n\r\nSuch statuettes are similar to well-known large-scale depictions of the hero that prominently adorned civic spaces in Renaissance Florence. ","briefDescription":"Statuette, terracotta, 'David', by the Master of the David and St John Statuettes, 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): 115–33. See especially p. 115-6."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Paoletti, John T. ‘The Bargello David and Public Sculpture in Fifteenth-century Florence.’ In <i>Collaboration in Italian Renaissance Art</i>, edited by Wendy Steadman Sheard and John T. Paoletti. New Haven and London: 1978. See p. 106-7, note 6."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Avery, Charles. <i>Fingerprints of the artist: European Terra-Cotta from the Artur M. Sackler Collection</i>. Washington, 1981. See p. 44, cat. No. 8."},{"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":"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. 44."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Maclagan, Eric and Longhurst, Margaret H. <i>Catalogue of Italian Sculpture</i>. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1932. See pp. 63-4."},{"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":"‘Inventory of Art Objects Acquired in the Year 1861.’ 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>. London: George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode, 1868. See p. 36."},{"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. "},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Migliarini, Arcangelo Michele. <i>Museo di Sculture del Risorgimento raccolto e posseduto da Ottavio Gigli</i>. Florence: 1858. See p. 78. "}],"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":"sword","id":"AAT37048"},{"text":"Costume","id":"AAT209261"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["7602-1861"],"accessionNumberNum":"7602","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1861,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2019LW3803"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-08-01","recordCreationDate":"1999-12-15","availableToBook":true}}