David and Goliath is one of just four paintings by the artist in Spain
The Museo del Prado is displaying its magnificent Caravaggio following restoration that has reinstated the original chiaroscuro and revealed previously concealed elements
With the support of Fundación Iberdrola España, a Protector sponsor of the Museo del Prado’s Restoration Programme, the painting, an example of Caravaggio’s outstanding originality, has undergone a process of restoration to remove layers of oxidised and opaque varnish from the surface with the aim of recovering the work’s chromatic range and contrasts.
This procedure, undertaken by Almudena Sánchez, a restorer at the Museo del Prado, has reinstated the work’s original values and revealed elements in the composition previously concealed by the opaqueness of the varnish, such as the light surrounding the young David’s head and the foreshortened body of Goliath.
The painting is now on display as part of the new installation of Rooms 7 and 7A, for which David García Cueto, Head of the Department of Italian and French Painting up to 1800, has devised a panoramic vision of the phenomenon of Caravaggism.
